April Bell Awarded Hartwell Fellowship

April Bell, PhD
NURTURE Postdoctoral Fellow

April Bell, PhD, was recently awarded a two-year Hartwell Fellowship for her proposal, "Identifying biomarkers from transcriptomic modeling for pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG)." DIPG is a universally fatal pediatric cancer, yet no DIPG-specific therapies or biomarkers exist. Little is understood about the mechanisms governing how DIPG brain tumors start, develop, or resist radiation. 

During the fellowship, Dr. Bell will use publicly available single-cell RNA sequencing data to study how cells in DIPG tumors communicate. The research aims to identify possible markers that could later be tested in the lab, with the ultimate goal of helping guide future treatment.

Dr. Bell works with mentor Theresa Walunas, PhD, Associate Professor, I.AIM.