Massachusetts General Hospital

Affiliations

Cogan Lab,
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Anat Stemmer-Rachamimov, MD

Assistant Pathologist
Massachusetts General Hospital

Assistant Professor in Pathology
Harvard Medical School

Research Interests

Our lab's research focuses on identifying the underlying molecular changes in the lesions and malformations associated with hereditary brain tumor syndromes (neurofibromatosis 1, neurofibromatosis 2, schwannomatosis and tuberous sclerosis), and the identification of activated pathways or events that lead to tumor progression. Although hereditary brain tumor syndromes are relatively uncommon, the same molecular events and pathways are often involved in tumorigenesis and progression of similar sporadic tumors that are much more frequent in the general population.

For example, schwannomas are benign nerve sheath tumors that may arise in people with no underlying genetic syndrome (solitary, sporadic schwannomas) or in the context of two hereditary tumor syndromes; neurofibromatosis 2 and schwannomatosis. Although all schwannomas share the loss of function of the NF2 gene, our hypothesis is that additional, epigenetic events occur in schwannomas and are responsible tumor growth. The identification of these events and of the pathways involved (by microarray expression analyses) may aid in the diagnosis of the different subclinical types of schwannomas as well as in the development of targeted therapies.

In addition, we perform pathological analyses of mouse models of neurofibromatosis, and have published a classification scheme for genetically engineered murine nerve sheath tumors.

Anat Stemmer-Rachamimov, MD

Bibliography of Anat Stemmer-Rachamimov via PubMed

Stemmer-Rachamimov Laboratory

Phone: 617-726-5510
Fax: 617-726-5079

Email: astemmerrachamimov@partners.org