Claudia Petritsch

Claudia Petritsch is an Associate Professor in Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine, specifically within the Department of Neurosurgery. Her research focuses on oligodendrocyte progenitor cells, cancer stem cells, and the intra-tumoral heterogeneity of brain tumors. She aims to understand the mechanisms behind cell fate decisions in brain progenitor cells and how these processes contribute to tumor development and treatment challenges.

Education and Career

• PhD: Claudia earned her doctorate (Dr. rer.nat) from the Institute for Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, where she studied cancer signaling and identified key regulators of growth factor receptor kinase signaling.
• Postdoctoral Research: She conducted postdoctoral studies at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of San Francisco, focusing on neural stem cells and asymmetric cell division.
• Previous Positions: Before joining Stanford, she was an instructor and led a research group in Munich, Germany, where her team explored mechanisms of intracellular location for cell fate determinants.

Research Focus

Dr. Petritsch's lab investigates:

• The intra-tumoral heterogeneity and immune suppression in brain tumors from a developmental perspective.
• Mechanisms of cell fate decisions in both normal and malignant brain cells using patient-derived samples.
• The development of cancer models to study glioma immune microenvironments.

Affiliations

In addition to her role at Stanford, she is a member of:

• The Stanford Cancer Institute
• The Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute
• The Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI)

Honors

Dr. Petritsch has received several awards, including:

• The Pediatric Cancer Model Development Award from the National Cancer Institute.
• A Cancer Research Award from Emerson Collective.

Her work is pivotal in advancing the understanding of brain tumors, aiming to identify vulnerabilities that could be targeted therapeutically.123