Posted July 9, 2021

Jesse Boehm, Ph.D., Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard

Dr. Jesse Boehm

The Rare Cancers Research Program is committed to supporting the development of resources and platforms that can facilitate collaboration and information-sharing within the rare cancers community. Dr. Jesse Boehm at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard received a Fiscal Year 2020 Resource Community Development Award to develop a broadly available resource of genomically characterized rare soft tissue sarcoma samples and models. Using a direct-to-patient platform for living tissue donation, the team will collect tissue samples from patients with desmoid tumors, clear cell sarcomas, and leiomyosarcoma. Cell line models will be created for these rare soft tissue sarcomas and characterized via whole-exome sequencing, RNA-sequencing, and in some instances, single-cell RNA-sequencing. The final goal of the project is to demonstrate proof of concept for the discovery of therapeutic targets via genome-wide Cas12a dependency screens. Successful completion of this project will create new resources for the sarcoma community to leverage new models and data to improve understanding of the rare sarcomas and facilitate drug discovery.

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