Michelle Monje

Monje wanted to be a physician from the age of five, when she was in kindergarten.[1] She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and became interested in biology as a child.[2] Monje was a figure skater during her childhood and taught figure skating to children with developmental disabilities whilst in Junior High.[2] She was an undergraduate student at Vassar College.[2] Monje studied medicine at Stanford University and earned her MD–PhD in 2004.[3] She completed her internship at Stanford before leaving to join Harvard Medical School as a medical resident in neurology. Monje worked in the Brigham and Women's Hospital as well as the Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed a fellowship at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where she was mentored by Philip A. Beachy, and was board certified in neuro-oncology and neurological subspecialities in 2013.[2]

Her research considers the molecular mechanisms for neurodevelopment and neuroplasticity.[4] She looks at how the neural circuits responsible for cognitive and motor functions are developed, and how the microenvironment of a tumour impacts the transition of precursor cells to diseased cells.[5] She studies brainstem tumours as a paradigm for paediatric gliogenesis.[6] Monje works at Stanford University, where she has developed new treatments for brain cancer since 2011.[7] She has extensively investigated Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), a cancer for which it is difficult to identify effective chemotherapy and impossible to remove surgically, as the tumour grows in the brainstem.[8] In 2009 she grew the first laboratory cultures of DIPG from deceased donors, which allowed her and her team to monitor the cell's growth and test chemotherapy agents.[9] The tumour tissue resources developed in Monje's laboratory are shared with researchers all around the world.[8] She also uses mouse models to test possible therapies.

Monje is leading a Phase 1 clinical trial of panobinostat, a drug which slows the growth of DIPG and has been shown to increase survival rates in mice. She has also engineered immune cells including the chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells to eradicate brain tumours.[10] This work involved screening DIPG tumour cultures for surface molecules that could be targets for CAR-T cells. Monje found that GD2 is present on the surface of 80% of DIPG tumours. Over expression of the sugar molecule is caused by the H3K27M mutation and drives the growth of tumour. Crystal Mackall developed CAR-T cells that attack the GD2, killing cultured DIPG cells which carry the H3K27M mutation.[10] Monje's engineered cells can cross the blood–brain barrier, and have been shown to greatly reduce the number of cancer cells in mice.[10]

She was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Neurology in 2018. She was recognised by State senator Jerry Hill with a Certificate of Recognition in June 2019.[8] The campaigning and research of Monje resulted in the United States renaming May 17 as Paediatric Brain Cancer Awareness Day.[8] Her research is supported by family members of children who have suffered from DIPG.[2][11] Monje serves on the advisory board of Abbie's Army, a non-profit that fights for a cure for DIPG.[12]

She is a recipient of the 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.[13]

• 2023 Richard Lounsbery Award[14]
• 2021 MacArthur Fellowship[15]
• 2021 Member, National Academy of Medicine[16]
• 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers[17]
• 2017 Neuro-Oncology Investigator Award, American Academy of Neurology[18]

• Monje, Michelle (2003). "Inflammatory blockade restores adult hippocampal neurogenesis". Science. 302 (5651): 1760–1765. Bibcode:2003Sci...302.1760M. doi:10.1126/science.1088417. PMID 14615545. S2CID 36806485.
• Monje, Michelle (2002). "Irradiation induces neural precursor-cell dysfunction". Nature Medicine. 8 (9): 955–962. doi:10.1038/nm749. PMID 12161748. S2CID 10347561.
• Monje, Michelle (April 2003). "Radiation injury and neurogenesis". Current Opinion in Neurology. 16 (2): 129–134. doi:10.1097/00019052-200304000-00002. PMID 12644738.
• Monje M. (July 2018). "Myelin plasticity and nervous system function". Annu Rev Neurosci. 8 (41):61-76. Annu Rev Neurosci. doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-080317-061853.[19]

Monje is married to neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth, with whom she has four children.