Jingyi Wu, PhD

Each year, thousands of young adults are diagnosed with IDH-mutant glioma, the most common brain cancer in people aged 35 to 44. Even with treatment, these tumors eventually return and take lives far too soon. A new drug approved in 2024 brought real hope. But it helps only about half of patients, and many treated tumors still fail to respond. The hardest part is that the same mutation, treated with the same drug, can mean recovery for one person and decline for another. Our research aims to explain that difference and make resistant tumors treatable. These tumors are shaped by tiny chemical marks on DNA that switch genes off. We believe the drug works by erasing these marks, freeing the genes a tumor needs to grow into healthy-like cells. In tumors that resist, those marks appear locked in place. To learn why, we will compare tumors that respond against tumors that do not. We will study patient samples taken before and during treatment. And we will test whether a second drug can unlock resistant tumors in the lab.If we succeed, we will understand why the same drug helps some patients but not others. That knowledge could let us design new drug combinations for the patients who have the fewest options today, switching tumors that resist treatment back into a state that responds. Because the same biology appears in other cancers, our findings could improve care for many patients well beyond those with brain tumors.