Brain Tumor Research

The goal of brain cancer research at Johns Hopkins is advancing the understanding of brain tumors and creating a fertile environment for innovation and implementation of new therapies to improve survival and quality of life for our patients.

Comprising a large range of national and international experts with multidisciplinary expertise, Johns Hopkins brain cancer laboratories are where creative and curious minds can take the risks that true innovation demands.

Our team includes:

• The inventor of intraoperative chemotherapy delivery
• Principle investigators of National Cancer Institutes (NCI)-founded consortium in new approaches to brain tumor therapy
• World leaders in brain tumor pathology
• Researchers who have linked glioblastoma to the MGMT gene
• A dedicated research methodologist/statistician

Johns Hopkins is uniquely positioned to advance the modern science of new therapies, genomics, immunology, drug delivery systems and more. Researchers find the infrastructure and support they need to tailor scientific projects that evolve more easily into FDA-compliant clinical trials. 

Our researchers are free to use all the tools essential to advancing the field, combining science and surgery, pharmacology, immunotherapy, stem cell research and gene sequencing, supported by close collaboration with Johns Hopkins’ Brain Science Institute and other centers.

No wonder Johns Hopkins is a perennial world leader in novel brain tumor treatments such as immunotherapy and direct delivery chemotherapy. 

More breakthroughs are likely: New studies are finding targets for therapies to take on the most aggressive brain tumors, delving into the “skeletal” cell components of high-grade glioma and medulloblastoma. We are finding novel therapies and engineering ways to get these compounds across the blood-brain barrier.

Brain cancer research at Johns Hopkins is not just a place where scientific pioneers grow and thrive. Likewise, our Brain Tumor Center (designated by the NCI as a Comprehensive Cancer Center) is a beacon for patients with aggressive or complex tumors. At Johns Hopkins, numerous clinical trials are testing brand new treatments and experimental therapies available nowhere else.