Gopalakrishnan Laboratory
Vidya Gopalakrishnan, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
- Departments, Labs and Institutes
- Labs
- Gopalakrishnan Laboratory
Areas of Research
- Pediatric
- Brain and CNS Tumor
- Chromatin Remodelers
- Epigenetics
The overall goal of research in the Gopalakrishnan Laboratory is to understand how pediatric brain tumors develop and to translate this information for therapeutic purposes.
Research Overview
Despite the rarity of childhood cancers, they are the leading cause of death from disease among children in the United States. A central challenge to improving long-term survival in pediatric cancer patients is an extremely limited spectrum of therapeutics that are effective in the setting of recurrent or metastatic tumors. High-throughput genomic studies have underscored the scarcity of mutations in pediatric tumors and also highlighted the need to evaluate changes in chromatin structure, post-translational modifications on proteins and a dysfunctional tumor microenvironment as drivers of childhood cancers. The advantage to the study of epigenetic, proteomic or immune mis-regulation in cancers is that these are potentially reversible and can be therapeutically targeted. Indeed, a number of epigenetic, kinase and immune modulators are in clinical trials for adult cancers and can be readily leveraged in a pediatric setting. Thus, the overall goal of research in the lab is to understand how pediatric brain tumors develop and to translate this information for therapeutic purposes.
Funding Support
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Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)
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National Institutes of Health (NIH)
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American Cancer Society (ACS)
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Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancers
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Addi's Faith Foundation
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Uncle Kory Foundation
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McGary Regan Foundation
Meet the Team
Dr. Gopalakrishnan's lab is made up of a team of researchers with distinct specialties and various areas of expertise.
Recent Publications
Sehl OC, Yang Y, Anjier AR, Nevozhay D, Cheng D, Guo K, Fellows B, Mohtasebzadeh AR, Mason EE, Sanders T, Kim P, Trease D, Koul D, Goodwill PW, Sokolov K, Wintermark M, Gordon N, Greve JM, Gopalakrishnan V.Mol Imaging Biol. 2025 Feb;27(1):78-88. doi: 10.1007/s11307-024-01969-z. Epub 2024 Dec 9.PMID: 39653984
Preclinical and Clinical-Scale Magnetic Particle Imaging of Natural Killer Cells: in vitro and ex vivo Demonstration of Cellular Sensitivity, Resolution, and Quantification.
Dobson THW and Gopalakrishnan V. Bioengineering (Basel). 2018 Oct 2;5(4):81. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering5040081.
Pre-clinical models of pediatric brain tumors--forging ahead.
Singh A, Cheng D, Swaminathan J, Yang Y, Zheng Y, Gordon N, Gopalakrishnan V.Sci Rep. 2024 Jun 12;14(1):13596. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-63371-7.PMID: 38866867
REST-dependent downregulation of von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor promotes autophagy in SHH-medulloblastoma.
Dobson THW, Hatcher RJ, Swaminathan J, Das CM, Shaik S, Tao RH, Milite C, Castellano S, Taylor PH, Sbardella G, Gopalakrishnan V. Mol Cancer Res. 2017 Aug;15(8):1073-1084. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786.MCR-16-0424. Epub 2017 May 8.
Regulation of USP37 expression by REST-associated G9a-dependent histone methylation.
Dhar S, Zhao D, Lin T, Gu B, Pal K, Wu SJ, Alam H, Yun K, Gopalakrishnan V, Flores ER, Northcott PA, Rajaram V, Li W, Shilatifard A, Sillitoe R, Chen K and Lee MG. Mol Cell. 2018 Jun 7;70(5):825-841.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2018.04.028. Epub 2018 May 31.
MLL4 is required to maintain broad range H3K4me3 peaks and super-enhancers at tumor suppressor genes.
Swaminathan J, Maegawa S, Shaik S, Sharma A, Bravo-Alegria J, Guo L, Xu L, Harmanci A, Gopalakrishnan V. Front Oncol. 2022 May 6;12:855167. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.855167. eCollection 2022.PMID: 3560040
Cross-Talk Between Histone Methyltransferases and Demethylases Regulate REST Transcription During Neurogenesis.
Shaik S, Maegawa S, Haltom AR, Wang F, Xiao X, Dobson T, Sharma A, Yang Y, Swaminathan J, Kundra V, Li XN, Schadler K, Harmanci A, Xu L, Gopalakrishnan V.Mol Oncol. 2021 May;15(5):1486-1506. doi: 10.1002/1878-0261.12903. Epub 2021 Feb 7.PMID: 33469989
REST promotes ETS1-dependent vascular growth in medulloblastoma.
Zaky W, Manton C, Miller C, Khatua S, Gopalakrishnan V and Chandra C., Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2017 Dec;36(4):617-633. doi: 10.1007/s10555-017-9700-2.
The ubiquitin proteasome pathway in adult and pediatric brain tumors: biological insights and therapeutic opportunities.
Kennis BA, Michel KA, Brugmann WB, Laureano A, Tao RH, Somanchi SS, Einstein SA, Bravo-Alegria JB, Maegawa S, Wahba A, Kiany S, Gordon N, Silla L, Schellingerhout D, Khatua S, Zaky W, Sandberg D, Cooper L, Lee DA, Bankson JA, Gopalakrishnan V. J Neurooncol. 2019 May;142(3):395-407. doi: 10.1007/s11060-019-03091-5. Epub 2019 Feb 20.PMID: 30788681
Monitoring of intracerebellarly-administered natural killer cells with fluorine-19 MRI.
Dobson THW, Tao RH, Swaminathan J, Maegawa S, Shaik S, Bravo-Alegria J, Sharma A, Kennis B, Yang Y, Callegari K, Haltom A, Talyor P, Kogiso M, Qi L, Khatua S, Goldman S, Lulla R, Fangusaro J, MacDonald T, Li XL, Hawkins C, Rajaram V, Gopalakrishnan V. Sci Signal. 2019 Jan 22;12(565):eaan8680. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.aan8680.
Transcriptional repressor REST drives lineage-stage specific histone H3-lysine-9 methylation and Ptch1 loss of heterozygosity and Akt hyperactivity in medulloblastoma.
Khatua S, Cooper LJN, Sandberg DI, Ketonen L, Johnson JM, Rytting ME, Liu DD, Meador H, Trikha P, Nakkula RJ, Behbehani GK, Ragoonanan D, Gupta S, Kotrotsou A, Idris T, Shpall EJ, Rezvani K, Colen R, Zaky W, Lee DA, Gopalakrishnan V.Neuro Oncol. 2020 Aug 17;22(8):1214-1225. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/noaa047.PMID: 32152626 Free PMC article. Clinical Trial
Phase I study of intraventricular infusions of autologous ex vivo expanded NK cells in children with recurrent medulloblastoma and ependymoma.
Nolo R, Herbrich S, Kannan S, Rao A, Zweidler-McKay P and Gopalakrishnan V., Oncotarget. 2017 Sep 28;8(49):86657-86670. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.21364. eCollection 2017 Oct 17
Targeting P-selectin blocks neuroblastoma growth.
Shaik S*, Kennis B*, Fangusaro J, Lulla R, Rajaram V, Goldman S, Nazarian J and Gopalakrishnan V. Oncotarget. 2017 Dec 28;9(4):5233-5250. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.23750. eCollection 2018 Jan 12.
REST upregulates gremlin to modulate diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma vasculature.
Somanchi SS, Kennis BA, Gopalakrishnan V, Lee DA, Bankson JA. Methods Mol Biol. 2016:1441:317-32.doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-3684-7_27.
In vivo (19) F-magnetic resonance imaging of adoptively transferred NK cells.
Callegari K, Maegawa S, Bravo-Alegria J and Gopalakrishnan V. Cell Commun Signal. 2018 Sep 18;16(1):60. doi: 10.1186/s12964-018-0275-5.
Pharmacological Inhibition of LSD1 blocks REST-dependent medulloblastoma cell migration.