PSF Director of Bone and Soft Tissue Tumor Program
Children's Hospital of Orange County
Throughout my clinical training, I acquired a broad background in pediatric oncology, with specific expertise in sarcomas. During fellowship, my research at University of California Irvine (UCI) focused on the role of the Wnt pathway, specifically, WIF-1 in tumorigenesis and metastases in osteosarcoma. After completion of my fellowship training, I took a position in the Hyundai Cancer Institute at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and subsequently became the Director for the Bone and Soft Tissue Tumor Program. Over the last 15 years, I have participated in and enrolled patients on numerous Children’s Oncology Group (COG) clinical trials and was appointed COG PI of Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials at CHOC in 2017. As a member institution of the Pediatric Early Phase Clinical Trials Network (PEP-CTN), I also have an active role in enrolling patients on Phase 1 clinical trials and participate in industry-initiated clinical trials. In addition, I developed an investigator-initiated protocol evaluating the use of continuation metronomic therapy after standard therapy in high-risk Ewing sarcoma patients. I have more recently become the CHOC PI for the project titled “Exploiting USP7 inhibitors as a therapeutic approach in osteosarcoma” in collaboration with UCI. In 2018, I became more active with the COG bone tumor committee and then in 2021, became the Bone Tumor Committee YI Vice Chair. I have a leadership role in an international project on clinical trials data harmonization of bone tumors (HIBiSCus). Since 2020, I have worked with the Pediatric Cancer Data Commons (PCDC) at the University of Chicago, contributing to the development of the osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma data dictionaries and developing data standards. My interest in data sharing has also led me to positions on the Executive Committee and Data Workgroup for the University of California Children, Adolescent, and Young Adults Cancer Consortium (UCCAYACC).
