Physician-scientist, cancer survivor: Brad Muller has unique perspective

The focus of everyone who works at St. Jude is improving outcomes for patients. But Bradley Muller, MD, an Instructor in the Department of Immunology, approaches this work from a unique perspective. Muller is both a medical doctor who takes care of children with cancer and a laboratory researcher searching for new and better treatments. He’s also a childhood cancer survivor.  

At 8 years old Muller was treated for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). It was then that he set his sights on becoming a doctor. Back then, in 1998, part of Muller’s healing journey was trying to figure out how to make something positive from his experience, not only for himself but also for his family. He became close with his oncologist during treatment and liked the way that they worked with his entire family. There and then, he decided that he wanted to be one of them – a doctor taking care of kids with T-cell ALL and figuring out better therapies. 

Muller first came to St. Jude during his medical training as a fellow, attracted by the Institution’s stand out reputation as a place to do translational research – scientific studies that bridge the divide between the lab and the clinic.  

“I was ending my residency at Johns Hopkins and looking for the right place to take my next career step. In my opinion, no one does translational research better than St. Jude. That’s largely because the labs are directly adjacent to the hospital, allowing a seamless relationship between scientists and clinicians. It was the perfect fit for what I wanted professionally,” said Muller. “St. Jude quite literally sets the standard for B-cell ALL (B-ALL) treatments. It’s hard to beat excellent survival in the patients with standard-risk B-ALL. Given those results, it seemed like a promising place to pursue T-ALL treatment research.  

At St. Jude, fellows participate in basic, clinical, and global research – the focus of which is their choice. Muller was drawn to study the disease he had, pediatric T-ALL, to understand why outcomes have not improved, and develop new potential treatments.  

Muller is being mentored by Paul Thomas, PhD, St. Jude Department of Host-Microbe Interactions, one of the field’s leading experts in T-cell receptor biology. The project Muller is working on is focused on gamma-delta T-cell receptor biology in a rare subtype of T-ALL, appropriately termed gamma-delta T-ALL. The cancerous T cells express a gamma-delta T cell receptor but use it incorrectly. This is particularly dangerous, as the receptor binds things to cause the T cell to activate and proliferate, causing cancer.  

“I’m trying to understand the biology of these receptors to find a better translational therapy,” said Muller. “St. Jude has been a great fit for both my research and pediatric hematology-oncology specialization. I’ve found my place here, studying a cancer that has been an intimate part of my life since childhood.”