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People who work at the ӳý are passionate about projects that connect basic biology to human health and disease. Sometimes when they see the ӳý referred to as a “genomics institute,” they want to say, “Wait, there’s more!” That’s because they’d like everyone to know that genomics -- central as it may be -- is just the beginning of the story.

Medulloblastoma is the most common type of malignant pediatric brain tumor. Though more than 50-60% of children diagnosed with the disease are cured, relapse risk remains a lifelong threat. Unfortunately, a reliable method of predicting which patients are at high-risk of relapse versus low-risk has been unavailable. Clinical methods for predicting relapse are notoriously poor. The result is that far more children receive toxic treatment than appear to require it based on relapse rates.