Spotlights

Celebrating the community working together to accelerate discoveries for rare cancers.

Trainee Spotlights

The future of rare cancer research depends on the next generation of scientists. Meet the trainees, technicians, postdoctoral fellows, and students working in TRACER member labs who are helping generate data, develop models, and discover new therapeutic opportunities.

Songli Zhu

Gujral Lab, Fred Hutch

Songli Zhu is a research scientist in the Gujral Lab at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, where he’s building a biobank of live tumor samples and research tools for rare cancers.

Andrea Largent

Chen Lab, University of Washington

Andrea Largent is a PhD student in the Chen Lab at the University of Washington, where she studies how rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) spreads and how to stop it. Her research focuses on proteins that help RMS cells make those changes to survive the trip and metastasize, and whether we can block them somehow.

Deanna Mische

Gujral Lab, Fred Hutch

Deanna works directly with rare tumor samples donated by patients. Her work helps make the most of each precious sample by supporting tumor profiling, functional testing, and data generation that can help accelerate rare cancer research.

Eric Bueter

Lawlor Lab, Seattle Children's

Eric Bueter didn’t plan on becoming a cancer researcher — until his cousin Sean’s rare Ewing sarcoma diagnosis changed everything. Eric studies how Ewing sarcoma spreads — and how to stop it.

Partner Spotlights

TRACER is built through partnerships with academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, patient advocacy groups, healthcare systems, and industry collaborators. These partnerships help expand access to patient samples, technologies, expertise, and resources needed to advance rare cancer research.

We are grateful to all TRACER trainees and member labs for their dedication to advancing rare cancer research.

cureMEC

From one family’s search for answers to a community driving research.

When Sebastián “Sebas” Casaus Natale was diagnosed with myoepithelial carcinoma (MEC) at just two years old, his parents, Michael Casaus and Naomi Natale, were confronted with a reality familiar to too many families affected by ultra-rare cancers: little was known about the disease, there were no established treatment protocols, and few resources existed to guide families. Rather than accept the lack of answers, Michael and Naomi founded cureMEC in 2022. What began as a determination to find better options for their son has grown into a patient-powered effort bringing together families, scientists, clinicians, and advocates to change what is possible for everyone affected by MEC. Today, cureMEC is helping build the research infrastructure that this ultra-rare cancer previously lacked, including funding research, developing disease models, establishing a biobank and patient data resources, and connecting patients directly with research opportunities. Through its partnership with TRACER, cureMEC is helping bring this same urgency to the laboratory. By connecting patients and precious tumor samples with researchers, we can build models of MEC, study the biology that drives each tumor, and search for therapeutic vulnerabilities that could ultimately lead to better treatments. For TRACER, this partnership represents what rare cancer research can become when patients and families are not simply participants in research, but partners in driving it forward.