Chondrosarcoma CS Foundation Board of Directors

Karina Galoian, Ph.D. is a research associate professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.

She also leads the departmental Institutional Review Board and is Research Director of the Sarcoma Disease Site Group at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.Dr Galoian Is a Principal Investigator of Musculoskeletal Oncology Signal Transduction Laboratory. The primary focus of her research is dedicated to studying and understanding molecular pathways leading to sarcomas, in particular chondrosarcomas.

She joined the Board of Directors because of her dedication and goal to make a difference in this field and find clues for a cure. The neuropeptide PRP-1demonstrates promising potential in inhibiting chondrosarcoma cells by targeting cancer stem cells Dr Galoians personal statement below speaks loud:

“The rare disease by itself most of the time is overlooked by funding agencies and even, by public awareness, though it becomes first but desperate priority when the tragedy knocks the door, then it becomes personal…”

In 2019 she lost her beloved husband Roman to another aggressive rare incapacitating disease without cure called cardiac amyloidosis.

Dexter Jin, Ph.D.; is the senior scientist on the Cancer Genomics Research team at Foundation Medicine in Cambridge, MA. He did his doctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I previously focused on understanding the invasive transition of breast cancers. At Foundation Medicine Dr Jin is on the Cancer Genomics Research team, where he uses FMI’s database of over 400,000 patient profiles for biomarker development and to better understand the genomics of rare cancers. Dr. Jin was invited to join the Chondrosarcoma Foundation because of his expertise in genetic sequencing.

William Cross, Ph.D. is currently a Research Fellow in the Department of Research Pathology, UCL Cancer Institute in London. He and Adrienne Flanagan, Ph.D. worked on the Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project and looked at genetic sequencing of Chondrosarcoma Patients. Dr. Cross research involves genetic mutations found in chondrosarcoma cells that may have direct implications for patient outcome; namely that people with a specific mutation combination (in the genes IDH1 and TERT) do worse, hence they should perhaps be given more attention upfront. He examines the need for testing the presence of these biomarkers following diagnosis, which is done for other cancer types and is easy and cost effective in the modern oncology clinic.