Toronto neurosurgeon will direct research on childhood brain cancer for TCH, Baylor
Dr. Michael Taylor, a molecular biologist and an international leader in pediatric neuro-oncology, has joined Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine to become the inaugural director of the institutions’ childhood brain cancer research program.
He will focus on pursuing therapies for difficult-to-treat brain tumors, the hospital said Wednesday.
Taylor had been a professor in the department of surgery at the University of Toronto and a principal investigator in the Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where he had worked for nearly 20 years. His work prompted the World Health Organization to adopt a new standard for classifying medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumor in the cerebellum, and ependymoma, a different type of tumor that forms in the brain or spinal cord, according to the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
A CPRIT grant helped Baylor College of Medicine recruit Taylor, who now moves to the Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center, one of the largest pediatric cancer and hematology centers in the U.S.
“Throughout my career, I have been inspired by the cancer research taking place at Texas Children’s, and I am honored to be joining this collaborative, cutting-edge team,” Taylor said in a news release. “While I am dedicated to curing medulloblastoma and ependymoma, most of all, I look forward to continuing my research into preventing these aggressive cancers. My vision is that no family ever has to face this devastating diagnosis.”
In addition to his research, Taylor will continue treating patients as a neurosurgeon in one of the busiest departments of its kind, Texas Children’s said. The neurosurgery division at the hospital sees high surgical volumes, especially in pediatric brain and spinal tumors, epilepsy and fetal surgery.
The hospital said in 2011 it became the first in the world to use MRI-guided thermal imaging laser technology to destroy hard-to-reach lesions in the brain that cause epilepsy. Texas Children’s surgeons developed a novel in-utero procedure to treat spina bifida. It also is one of the few pediatric centers with focused ultrasound technology, which helps surgeons target specific areas of the brain and body for treatment, the hospital said.
“I am very proud to welcome Dr. Taylor to our special neurosurgical team,” said Dr. Howard Weiner, chief of neurosurgery at Texas Children’s Hospital and professor and vice chair of neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine.