Robin Buerki, MD

I am an early career clinician-investigator in Neuro-oncology. I have trained in biochemistry and immunologylaboratories where I engaged in hypothesis-driven research and learned how to approach biomedical problems. My experience as a physician treating patients with brain tumors motivates me to advance therapies and improve survival outcomes for CNS malignancies. I intend to focus on three areas of clinical research: 1) clinical trials of targeted chemotherapeutics in molecularly-selected subtypes glioma and meningioma, for example TRK inhibitors for infantile glioblastoma harboring NTRK-fusions or kinase inhibitors for H3-K27M mutant diffuse midline gliomas harboring FGFR kinase domain activating mutations; 2) overcoming tumoral immunosuppression and lymphocyte sequestration in glioblastoma, including a randomized controlled trial to minimize iatrogenic immunosuppression from corticosteroids; 3) treatments for the long-term neurocognitive effects of cranial irradiation, focusing on use of the NMDAR antagonist memantine as a protective agent. In particular, I am interested in the adolescent and young adult (AYA) population for whom the chronic effects of radiation result in significant disability and childhood cancer survivors for whom radiation-induced secondary malignancies are morbid and lethal.