Advancing Pediatric Brain Tumor Research Through Crucial Infrastructure Support
Award: $222,000 (awarded 2025)
Principal Investigator:Adam Resnick, Children’s Brain Tumor Network
The Children’s Brain Tumor Network (CBTN) is transforming pediatric brain tumor research by building the essential data, technology, and human infrastructure that powers precision medicine for children worldwide. With more than 8,000 participants enrolled and one of the world’s largest open, AI-ready ecosystems of clinical, genomic, molecular, and imaging data, CBTN is uniquely positioned to accelerate discoveries that no single institution could achieve alone. Its groundbreaking work, including leading the first ARPA-H award ever focused on pediatrics has already begun automating secure extraction of clinical data from electronic health records through the national RADIANT initiative, creating a scalable blueprint for real-time, multi-modal data integration across all tumor types.
While federal dollars support emerging technologies, the expertise required to collect, validate, and maintain high-quality patient data remains dependent on PBTF’s partnership. Continued support from PBTF directly sustains critical CBTN personnel and operations, including the clinical data operations core, clinical research coordinators who manage all of patient records, and imaging analysts who harmonize complex MRI datasets across hospitals.
These investments ensure that every child’s scans, specimens, and clinical experiences are captured once and leveraged to fuel research, informing clinical trials, and shaping the next generation of safer, more effective treatments. By strengthening data quality, advancing automation, and expanding multi-modal imaging integration, PBTF’s partnership enables CBTN to deliver trial-grade datasets at unprecedented scale. Although the broader initiative is tumor-agnostic, in recognition of your focused commitment to medulloblastoma, your funding will be designated specifically for medulloblastoma data collection and analysis within the CBTN infrastructure. This approach ensures that your investment delivers disease-specific impact while leveraging a scalable, collaborative research framework to accelerate progress for children with medulloblastoma.
