White House names Abramson Cancer Center neuro-oncologist a Cancer Moonshot Scholar

The Biden Cancer Moonshot Program named Penn Medicine’s Richard E. Phillips, chief of the division of Neuro-Oncology and an assistant professor of neurology, a Cancer Moonshot Scholar. Phillips is among 11 scholars included in this year’s cohort, who together will receive a total of $6 million to support cancer research and innovation across the country. The $683,099 grant will support Phillips as he researches tumor epigenetics, an emerging field pertaining to how changes to DNA can impact the development of cancer cells, with a specific focus on brain tumors in children and young adults.  

“While there have been important advances in cancer therapy over the past decade, brain tumors are still some of the most complicated cancers to treat, because they are difficult to remove with surgery and resist treatment by existing therapies,” says Phillips. “However, science is moving quickly; the mutations that cause brain tumors are a lot clearer now, and there is every reason to be optimistic that with continued investment we can create new treatments that correct these genetic mutations. The support from the Cancer Moonshot program underscores the White House’s faith in our research and will help us accelerate efforts to develop the novel therapies which are desperately needed for our patients.”

The Phillips Lab investigates how epigenetic mechanisms—the processes that control whether specific genes are turned on or off—contribute to brain tumor development. In normal brain development, epigenetic instructions guide cells to become specialized types, such as brain, blood or skin cells. When these instructions malfunction, cells can become confused and turn into cancer cells. The lab’s goal is to uncover why these instructions go awry and cause brain tumors, called gliomas, and how targeted treatments might correct or halt this confusion. 

Gliomas are a type of brain tumor that forms in the connective tissue of the brain, and primarily affect children and young adults. In the United States, about 80,000 people are newly diagnosed with a brain tumor each year, and roughly 25 percent of these are gliomas. In children, gliomas are the most common solid tumors and the most common cause of cancer deaths. Phillips’ lab focuses on understanding epigenetics in these tumors to identify what goes wrong in cell differentiation, causing cells to develop into cancer cells instead of healthy cells. Recently, the lab identified a pathway implicated in one type of glioma and is developing a small molecule to target the tumor, aiming to guide the cells back to normal development and halt uncontrolled growth.

“The most effective cancer research involves creative thinking about complicated problems. We are incredibly proud about the support of Dr. Phillips from this Cancer Moonshot Initiative,” says Robert H. Vonderheide, director of the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine. “His approach to understanding how tumors develop will pave the way for new treatments that will no doubt have a positive impact on the lives of patients.” 

Phillips joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine in 2020. He is an MD Ph.D. graduate from King’s College London, completed a residency in Neurology at Harvard/MGH Brigham in Boston, and a fellowship in Neuro-Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he stayed on as faculty. He has published scholarly works in professional journals including Cancer Cell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal of Neuro-Oncology, and many other leading journals. 

The Cancer Moonshot Scholars Program is designed to support early-career scientists, researchers, and innovators from diverse backgrounds, including from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences research workforce. The Biden Administration intends to fund up to 30 additional Cancer Moonshot Scholars by 2025.