Myron Ignatius, Ph.D.

Soft-tissue cancers and tumors of the bone account for 12% of all pediatric cancers. One of the challenges in the clinic for pediatric sarcomas (soft-tissue and bone cancers) is tumor relapse. Tumors once treated are often deadly if they come back after treatment. Our laboratory is interested in studying relapse in Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), a cancer of skeletal muscle where when the cancer recurs, it responds poorly. Even for survivors, treatment often causes health problems or other cancers later in life. The Ignatius laboratory uses a combination of model systems including zebrafish tumor models, murine xenograft assays and in vitro systems to discover and interrogate mechanisms driving relapse. We also have set up collaborations to model mutations seen in the clinic in zebrafish and cell-based models.

Dr. Myron Ignatius received his Ph.D. at Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio and did his Post-doctoral Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/ Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Molecular Medicine, a Principal Investigator at the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, and a CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research.