Tailor Lab

The goal of the laboratory of Jignesh Tailor, MD, PhD, is to understand how neural progenitors deviate away from their normal trajectory to generate brain and spinal cord tumors.

The Tailor Lab uses human neural stem cells as in vitro models of progenitors in the developing brain/spinal cord and investigates the molecular and cellular effects of cancer predisposition genes on neural stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. The lab obtained National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense funding to study differentiation failure in the central nervous system with NF2 loss and the development of ependymoma precursors in NF2-related schwannomatosis.

Tailor and his team believe that understanding the early steps of brain tumorigenesis will lead to novel therapeutic strategies to prevent tumor formation in patients with a brain cancer predisposition syndromes.

Failed Differentiation of Human Neural Progenitors with NF2 Loss
Patients with neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2) are predisposed to ependymoma of the spinal cord and lower brainstem. In this project, the Tailor Lab studies the effect of NF2 loss on differentiation of spinal and hindbrain neuroepithelial stem (NES) cells (Tailor J, Kittappa R, Leto K, et al., J Neurosci. 2013;33:30). Furthermore, the group explores the tumorigenic potential of radial glial cells derived from these cells and how NF2 loss affects the genetic and epigenetic landscape of these cells to confer tumorigenicity. 

Targeting NF2 Gene in Neural Progenitors of Developing Spinal Cord
In this project, the Tailor lab explores the in vivo effects of targeting the NF2 gene in Blbp-expressing radial glia cells within the developing spinal cord of genetically engineered mice. The central hypothesis of this project is that misguided radial glia cells may give rise to ependymoma precursors if NF2 is lost at specific timepoints of development.

Drug Discovery in Pediatric Brain Tumors
The Tailor Lab is home to the largest biorepository in the state of Indiana dedicated to biobanking tissues collected from children who undergo brain surgery or post-mortem donation. These specimens are used to understand pathogenesis of childhood brain cancer and identification of new drug targets. The lab is interrogating the kinome of recurrent malignant pediatric brain tumors using novel technologies to develop a personalized approach for the identification of new FDA-approved drugs. 

NIH NINDS K08 Career Development Award
DoD Exploration Hypothesis Award
Riley Children’s Foundation Pediatric Neuro-oncology Research Fund
IU School of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery start-up funds

A full list of publications by Jignesh Tailor, MD, PhD, is available on PubMed.

Noah Burket, MD, PhD, Student
Jenna Koenig, MD, PhD, Student
Ken Virgin, Cecilia Crockett Scholar
Titto Augustine, PhD, Assistant Research Professor of Neurological Surgery
Chris Subi-Kasozi, Undergraduate Student (Honors Program)