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I am very excited to join the Center for Cancer & Immunology Research at Children's National Hospital and look forward to working with everyone! If you are interested in joining the group or if you just love zebrafish, feel free to reach out. The lab website is coming soon.

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Finally, I would like to thank my funding sources, the NIH NCI and Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, for their tremendously important support of young investigators. @AlexsLemonade

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I am also very thankful to the mentors who supported me along the way, including Dr. Brian Dias, and our ZDMS Mentoring program - Drs. Yi Feng, Richard White, and Philip Elks.

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I would like to sincerely thank my mentor, @amatrudalab.bsky.social, for the opportunity to reach this point in my career by supporting my growth and having me as part of his wonderful team. I am deeply grateful to every member of the Amatruda Lab. I could not have asked for better group colleagues

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My Lab will focus on how cancer cells hijack developmental signaling pathways during tumor/niche establishment and evolution, with the goal of identifying new therapeutic targets in pediatric cancers.

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I am very excited to share that I am transitioning to the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research at Children's National Hospital, where I will be opening my Lab this spring. #PediatricCancer #Zebrafish #Development #TME

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If you are interested in joining the group or if you just love zebrafish, feel free to reach out. The lab website is coming soon.🐟🦓

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Finally, I would like to thank my funding sources, the NIH NCI and Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, for their tremendously important support of young investigators.

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I am also very thankful to the mentors who supported me along the way, including Dr. Brian Dias, and our ZDMS Mentoring program - Drs. Yi Feng, Richard White, and Philip Elks.

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I would like to sincerely thank my mentor, @amatrudalab.bsky.social, for allowing me to reach this point in my career by supporting my growth and for having me as part of his wonderful team. I am deeply grateful to every member of the Amatruda Lab. I could not have asked for better colleagues.

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Elena Vasileva @evasileva.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

My lab will focus on how cancer cells hijack developmental signaling pathways during tumor/niche establishment and evolution, with the goal of identifying new therapeutic targets in pediatric cancers.

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Thank you, Genevieve!!!☺️

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9/9 We hope this model will deepen our understanding of the origins of human #EwingSarcoma and will speed the development of better therapies. @amatrudalab.bsky.social

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8/9. Strikingly, EWSR1::FLI1-expressing cells induced ectopic fin formation by locally activating Fgfr and Hox signaling, eventually giving rise to tumors. This suggests that pre-tumor cells hijack developmental programs to establish a local signaling environment for tumor initiation.

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7/9 By integrating chromatin accessibility with genome-wide EWSR1::FLI1 binding profiles, we show that the fusion reprograms cells by binding ETS motif-containing developmental enhancers. We also observed EWSR1::FLI1 binding to GGAA repeats, consistent with human data.

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6/9 Single-cell transcriptomic and chromatin profiling of zebrafish tumors revealed that EWSR1::FLI1 expression in neural crest cells drives a mesenchymal/mesodermal shift, with mesodermal genes like #Brachyury (T) strongly upregulated. #NCCs #mesoderm #reprogramming

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5/9. Next, we generated a stable zebrafish line with tissue-specific expression of human EWSR1::FLI1 in NCCs. This led to the development of pre-tumor outgrowths and, eventually, massive tumors, demonstrating that the expression of the oncofusion in NCCs is tumorigenic in vivo.

4/9 First, using our mosaic zebrafish model of Ewing sarcoma, we traced EWSR1::FLI1 positive cells in early development and found that lineage, timing, and expression level of the oncofusion are critical. In our model, neural crest cells uniquely tolerated this toxic oncofusion in vivo.

3/9 In this study, we use zebrafish genetic cancer models to investigate the origin of #EwingSarcoma. We show that EWSR1::FLI1 alters embryonic cell fate decisions, reprogramming neural crest cells into a mesoderm-like state that initiates this devastating childhood cancer.

2/9 Huge thanks to Dr. Arata @clairearataphd and Dr. Crump @crumplab.bsky.social, and the amazing @childrensLA environment that made this work possible. Very grateful to my mentor, Dr. Amatruda @amatrudalab.bsky.social, and our fantastic Lab.