UCSC Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative

cureMEC partnered with the Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative at UC Santa Cruz by providing two MEC tumor samples for inclusion in their comparative genomic analyses. Treehouse uses a “Tumor Map” approach: each tumor is analyzed in the context of a large compendium of DNA/RNA profiles, then visualized and compared to thousands of other cancers based on molecular similarity.

With our MEC samples integrated into their pipeline, Treehouse has already placed MEC into this “map of tumors,” revealing how MEC aligns — or diverges — from other pediatric and adult tumors at a genomic level. This comparative context can reveal unique molecular features, highlight pathway activity, and suggest potential therapeutic strategies.

Treehouse’s published work also includes analyses of a separate MEC case, using similar RNA-expression outlier detection methods to nominate therapeutic hypotheses for rare cancers. By combining their broad comparative framework with our tumor samples, Treehouse deepens the molecular picture of MEC and helps point to new avenues for precision medicine.