NEWS
December 20, 2024
Happy Holidays from the Tsai Lab! We started many new lab traditions today, kicking the day off with the first annual lab cleaning. We wiped down all the shelves and equipment, and deep cleaned the tissue culture hoods and benches. After a morning of cleaning, we headed to the first annual lab holiday lunch at a local Los Feliz favorite for fresh pasta. Jess gifted each member of the lab a book that she thought they would enjoy reading (all tangentially related to science, of course!). We will be taking a holiday break, but cannot wait for all the science that awaits in 2025! And we will be welcoming some new lab members very soon (more to come)!
December 18, 2024
Huge congratulations to Marissa for getting her first MD/PhD acceptance!!!! We are so proud of you!
November 27, 2024
We are so thankful to the DIPG/DMG Collaborative for supporting our lab with a $100,000 research grant. We are committed to fighting DIPG/DMG.
This is an incredibly special grant that was co-funded by 25 different foundations who are all generously supporting our research: The Cure Starts Now Foundation, Brooke Healey Foundation, Melina Michelle Edenfield Foundation, The Cure Starts Now Australia, The Cure Starts Now Canada, Reflections Of Grace Foundation, Yuvaan Tiwari Foundation, Cure Brain Cancer Foundation, Aubreigh’s Army Foundation 328, Aidan's Avengers, Run DIPG, Musella Foundation, Love4Lucas Foundation, Whitley’s Wishes, Anna’s Bake Sale Foundation, The Ayla Foundation, The Isabella and Marcus Foundation, Love, Chloe Foundation, Lauren's Fight for Cure, Robert Connor Dawes Foundation, Ryan's Hope, The Gold Hope Project, Abby’s Corner Foundation, The DIPG/DMG Collaborative, and Snapgrant.com
November 25, 2024
Happy Birthday, Marissa! We celebrated Marissa’s birthday today with apple cranberry pie!
November 22, 2024
We are tremendously grateful to the McKenna Claire Foundation for generously supporting our laboratory. The Tsai Lab is committed to fighting DIPG through our pediatric brain tumor research.
November 4, 2024
Today, we welcomed Elise Schaefer, first year PIBBS PhD student, to the lab today for her rotation!
October 31, 2024
Happy Halloween! We dressed up for Halloween as Western blots!
October 18, 2024
The Tsai Lab was awarded a Core Pilot Grant today from the Saban Research Institute at CHLA for the Extracellular Vesicle Core! This will enable us to pursue pilot studies examining microRNAs in embyronal tumors, and lipid nanoparticle delivery of targeted therapies for FOXR2-expressing diffuse midline gliomas. We are so thankful for this opportunity to generate new pilot data!
October 2, 2024
The Tsai Lab was awarded a Core Pilot Grant today from the Saban Research Institute at CHLA for the Spatial Biology and Genomics Core! This will enable us to pursue transcriptomic analyses of pediatric brain tumor cell lines! We are incredibly grateful for this support.
September 23, 2024
Happy Birthday, Tessa! We celebrated Tessa’s birthday today with red velvet cupcakes. We also welcomed Nana Gyaabah-Kessie, a first year PIBBS PhD student, to the lab today for her rotation!
September 12, 2024
Today, we had our end of summer lab lunch at Sogo Handroll Bar just down the street from CHLA - our lab loves sushi! I am grateful to the team for all their hard work and dedication. We will be welcoming PhD rotation students from the Keck PIBBS Program in the fall!
August 21, 2024
We are so excited to share that our collaborative proposal - Experimental validation of AI/ML-identified therapeutic targets in glioblastoma - is being funded by the Musella Foundation and Stache Strong! We are so grateful for this support, and this project reflects a truly multi-disciplinary collaboration with Dr. Orly Alter and her research group at the University of Utah. We are combining mathematics, physics, and machine learning with cancer biology and functional genomics!
August 14, 2024
Huge congratulations to Jess for receiving the Notice of Award (NOA) today for her K08 award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI)!!!!!! This will enable further studies in understanding FOXR2-expressing diffuse midline gliomas!
August 7, 2024
The Tsai Lab was awarded a Core Pilot Grant today from the Saban Research Institute at CHLA for the Small Animal Imaging Core! This will enable us to pursue research delivering novel therapeutics to in vivo diffuse midline glioma models!
July 23, 2024
We welcomed Sofia Krykunenko to the Tsai Lab today as an undergraduate researcher. She is a rising sophomore at UCLA, and we are looking forward to having her in the lab during the summer and upcoming school year! Welcome Sofia!
July 15, 2024
Tessa House joined the Tsai Lab today as an Associate Research Specialist! Tessa recently graduated from UCLA where she has extensive research experience in both wet lab and computational methods! We are so excited to have her on our team!
July 1, 2024
Jess represented the Tsai Lab at the 21st International Symposium on Pediatric Neuro-Oncology (ISPNO 2024) in Philadelphia! She presented two posters - one on our FOXR2 work and the second on genetic regulators of nanoparticle uptake in diffuse midline gliomas. The next ISPNO meeting in 2026 will be in Sydney, Australia!
June 19, 2024
Congrats to Jess for receiving a Wright Foundation Pilot Award from Keck School of Medicine of USC! This funding will allow us to initiate a new project focused on atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors!
June 18, 2024
Brava to Marissa for presenting her work today at the Saban Research Institute Science Day!
May 20, 2024
Huge congratulations to Marissa for publishing her article - How to set up your new lab space - out today in Nature! This is our first Tsai Lab publication!
May 16, 2024
The Tsai Lab was featured on the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation blog today! We are so grateful to ALSF for their support and for highlighting the importance of childhood brain tumor research.
April 8, 2024
Marissa did a fantastic job presenting her work on genetic regulators of nanoparticle uptake in diffuse midline gliomas. We had a great time at AACR in San Diego!
April 3, 2024
Congrats to Jess who was selected as one of two inaugural Saban Research Institute Sacchi Physician-Scientist Scholars. Thank you to CHLA, the Saban Research Institute, the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute, and the Albert and Bettie Sacchi Foundation for their incredible support of physician-scientists!
March 4, 2024
Marissa Coppola joined the lab today as a Research Specialist and the first member of the Tsai Lab! She has significant expertise in culturing neurospheres, molecular biology, and all things CRISPR. We are so incredibly lucky to have her on our team!
March 1, 2024
The Tsai Lab opened today at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as part of the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute! We have a lot of unpacking and setting up to do, and we are thrilled to get started on our science!
October 25, 2023
Jess pitched a new project idea in the Shark Tank at the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Young Investigator Summit in Philadelphia, and received $20,000 from the sharks as well as an extra $5,000 as the Audience Choice Winner! Thank you to Alex's Lemonade Stand for their ongoing support!
July 20, 2023
Jess is grateful to receive a St. Baldrick’s Scholar Award that will provide three years of research funding. Thank you to St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Griffin’s Guardians for their continued support!
June 23, 2023
Brava Jess for presenting her work as a talk during the diffuse midline gliomas session at the Pediatric SNO Meeting in Washington, D.C.!
April 2, 2023
Congrats to Jess who was awarded a two year research grant for her work “Dissecting FOXR2-mediated oncogenesis in diffuse midline gliomas” from the Rally Foundation and Kids Join the Fight!
March 1, 2023
Congratulations to Jess who received a Trustee Recognition Award from the Grass Foundation! The Grass Foundation recognizes and supports efforts to use neuroscience as a way to unite thoughtful people across various socioeconomic and geographic barriers.
Jess is honored to receive a 2023 Emerging Generation Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI)!