Scientific Areas of Expertise: Epigenetic Regulators in Medulloblastoma; Pediatric Brain Tumors; Pre-clinical Trials in Medulloblastoma and Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumors
For pivotal contributions to the understanding of childhood brain cancers, especially medulloblastoma, specifically highlighting how developmental pathways and cell cycle regulatory proteins, including cyclin dependent kinases and those encoded by the Ink4a/ARF locus, are capable of regulating central nervous system function and brain tumor initiation and progression.
A leading light in the global cancer research community, Dr. Roussel has made pivotal contributions to the understanding of childhood brain cancers, particularly medulloblastoma that have been of paramount importance to the development of effective clinical treatments. A pioneer in the field of molecular oncology and translational cancer research, Dr. Roussel discovered some of the earliest recognized retroviral oncogenes and defined key elements in cell cycle regulation, including crucial roles for cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs) in carcinogenesis. Notably, she demonstrated how specific polypeptide inhibitors of CDKs regulate neuronal development and suppress cerebellar tumorigenesis in response to oncogenic stress. Dr. Roussel and colleagues have since established a cohort of molecularly conserved and fully characterized patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) models using primary tumor samples acquired from St. Jude patients in an effort to better understand the molecular pathogenesis of pediatric brain cancer. These models that are available without quid-pro-quo have and continue to be crucial to illuminating pediatric brain tumor heterogeneity and to shaping translational and preclinical strategies by which to inform pediatric cancer clinical trial designs.
Importantly, Dr. Roussel’s research has provided important insights into the role of the Ink4 proteins in tumor suppression and in characterizing how they influence brain tumor initiation and progression. Her team has since developed numerous mouse models of different molecular subgroups of medulloblastoma. By utilizing these mouse models, Dr. Roussel has expertly demonstrated how loss of the tumor suppressors, Ink4c and p53, induces medulloblastoma of the Sonic hedgehog subgroup… She developed the first mouse model of the most highly aggressive molecular subgroup of medulloblastoma, Group3. Using this model, she uncovered distinct requirements for the repressive c-Myc co-factor, Miz1 in defining subgroup identity. This fundamental work has since uncovered epigenetic regulators capable of driving Myc-driven disease and has shown that c-Myc activation contributes to an incurable anaplastic disease. More recently, through the use of high throughput screening of FDA-approved drugs, Dr. Roussel’s team has identified several chemotherapeutic compounds currently undergoing investigation in clinical trials for the treatment of c-Myc-driven medulloblastoma.
Selected Awards and Honors
2020 Board of Scientific Advisors, Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research, New Haven, Connecticut
2020 External Advisory Board, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington
2019 Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC
2019-2023 ~Board of Directors, American Association for Cancer Research, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2017 Mentor of the Year Award, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
2015 Elected Fellow, Open Academy for Advanced Sciences in Oncology, Paris Alliance of Cancer Research Institutes, Paris, France
2011 Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2011 50 Top Ranked French Personalities in USA, Magazine France-Amerique, New York, New York
2010 McDonnell Brain Cancer Research Award, James S. McDonnell Foundation, Saint Louis, Missouri
2009 Board of Scientific Advisors, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
2007 Merit Award, Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation, New York, New York
2003-2008 Board of Scientific Counselors, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
2003 Inspirational Award for Pediatric Brain Tumor Research, Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation, New York, New York
2001 Elected Member, Faculty of 1000, London, England, United Kingdom