Giselle
Alexandra Suero-Abreu1, 2, G. Praveen Raju3,
Diane Pham3, Luis Barraza4, Kamila U. Szulc1,
2, Edward J. Houston2, Alexandra Joyner4, Daniel
H. Turnbull, 12
1Biomedical Imaging Department, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; 2Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; 3Department of Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States; 4Developmental Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY, United States
Preclinical brain tumors models have the ability to provide insights on the etiology and pathogenesis of the human disease. Since studies performed in end-stage tumors may not accurately reflect their critical genetic alterations, there is a need for sensitive imaging methods in order to analyze the early stages of tumorigenesis. In our study, we optimized an in vivo high resolution MEMRI protocol for the characterization of tumor progression in a novel mouse model of sporadic Medulloblastoma. We successfully detected early pre-neoplastic lesions, longitudinally assessed their progression and analyzed the molecular and imaging features of advanced-stage tumors.