Associate Professor Giselle López, MD, PhD, attended the Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) Annual Conference from November 19-23, 2025, in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she made various contributions to the meeting. She presented a poster titled "PI3K Pathology Alterations are Drivers of Progression and Predict Worse Overall Survival in Newly Diagnosed Molecularly-Defined Oligodendroglioma." Oligodendroglioma is a rare kind of brain tumor, diagnosed in a little over 1,000 patients per year in the United States. In her studies, she found that patients whose tumors had mutations in either PIK3CA or PIK3R1 genes have worse overall survival that patients without these mutations, identifying a new biomarker for more aggressive behavior.
López also was a part of the SNO Biospecimen Working Group and the SNO Future Leaders Working Group. In addition, she served as a panelist on the Student and Trainee Forum on Careers in Neuro-Oncology, where she focused on highlighting careers in pathology and research. Furthermore, she participated in the SNO Executive Leadership Workshop and served as co-moderator of a Molecular Pathology Abstract Session.
Finally, for the next two years, López will be serving as co-chair of the SNO Neuropathology Subject Matter Track, along with. Albert Lai, MD, PhD, professor of Neurology at the University of California-Los Angeles, and Christina Appin, MD, assistant professor of Pathology at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
López actively mentors Duke Pathology graduate students, residents, and faculty members, in addition to mentoring undergraduate students interested in pursuing MDs and PhDs. She was appointed as associate director of Graduate Studies in October 2025. Her lab is focused on searching for cures for brain tumors.
In July 2023, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) named López to its prestigious ASCP 2023 40 Under Forty list in recognition of her research and work mentoring the next generation of physicians and scientists. Read more about that honor, and watch a short video about her work here.