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Dissertation Mentors for PhD in Biomedical Sciences Current Page

Dissertation Mentors: PhD in Biomedical Sciences

Find out more about the PhD program world-class biomedical research faculty and their research interests. Most accept students for laboratory rotations and dissertation projects.

Brian J. Abraham, PhD

Development Committee, Applied Biomedical Data Sciences MS Program

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Brian Abraham Lab
Research Interests:
Transcriptional regulation & computational pipelines to synthesize and distill complicated transcriptional processes and how they go awry in diseased cells.
Aseem Ansari, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Ansari Lab
Research Interests:
Synthetic gene regulators, Artificial Transcription Factors, Precision Medicine, RNA Polymerase II transcription cycle
M. Madan Babu, PhD, FRSC

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center of Excellence for Data Driven Discovery

George J. Pedersen Endowed Chair in Biological Data Sciences
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Babu Lab
Research Interests:
Data science for discovery and personalized medicine
Suzanne Baker, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Brain Tumor Research Division
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Baker Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms driving diffuse high-grade glioma (HGG) in children
Jay B. Bikoff, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Bikoff Lab
Research Interests:
Neural circuits controlling movement
Daniel J. Blair, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Blair Lab
Scott C. Blanchard, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Single-molecule Imaging Center
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Blanchard Lab
Research Interests:
Examining structure-function relationships in macromolecular assemblies
Xinwei Cao, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Cao Lab
Research Interests:
Growth control during neural tube development
Chi-Lun Chang, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
- Chang Lab
Research Interests:
Dynamic regulation of inter-organelle communication
Taosheng Chen, PhD, PMP

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, High Throughput Bioscience Center
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Chen Lab
Research Interests:
Drug discovery technologies; Drug toxicity, Resistance & Human diseases
Xiang Chen, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Xiang Chen Lab
Research Interests:
OMICS integration and tumor heterogeneity by machine learning approaches
Yong Cheng, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Cheng Lab
Research Interests:
Cis-regulatory modules in hematopoiesis and its disorders
Hongbo Chi, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Chi Lab
Research Interests:
Cellular signaling in innate and adaptive immunity
Wilson K. Clements, PhD

Associate Dean, Biomedical Sciences PhD Program

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Clements Lab
Research Interests:
Vascular/hematopoietic development and leukemia
John D. Crispino, PhD, MBA

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Division of Experimental Hematology
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Crispino Lab
Tommaso Cupido, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Cupido Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanism and regulation of protein machines, Chemical Probe Discovery, Cancer biology
Alessandra d'Azzo, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Genetics
- d'Azzo Lab
Research Interests:
Intracellular degradation in development & disease
Hai T. Dao, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Andrew M. Davidoff, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Surgery Department

Director, Surgical Research
Affiliations:
- Surgery
- Davidoff Lab
Research Interests:
Neuroblastoma, renal tumors, germ cell tumors; Angiogenesis inhibition for cancer therapy
Christopher DeRenzo, MD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Bone Marrow Transplant
- DeRenzo Lab
Research Interests:
Adoptive cell therapy for solid tumors, CAR-T cells
Fabio Demontis, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Demontis Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of skeletal muscle aging, protein homeostasis, and myokines
Adam Durbin, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Durbin Lab
Research Interests:
Transcriptional and epigenetic control in neuroblastoma
Michael Dyer, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Developmental Neurobiology
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Dyer Lab
Research Interests:
Retinal development and retinoblastoma
Yongqiang Feng, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Feng Lab
Research Interests:
Novel strategies to better manipulate immune cell behaviors
Marcus Fischer, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Fischer Lab
Research Interests:
Protein conformational landscape for ligand discovery
Paul Geeleher, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Geeleher Lab
Research Interests:
Genomics, Drug repurposing, Neuroblastoma
Bryan A. Gibson, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Stephen Gottschalk, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy
Affiliations:
- Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy
- Gottschalk Lab
Research Interests:
Cancer immunotherapy, cell therapy, stem cell transplantation
Douglas R. Green, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Green Lab
Research Interests:
Apoptosis, autophagy, and mitochondria
Mario Halic, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Halic Lab
Research Interests:
Regulation of genome expression
Young-Goo Han, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Han Lab
Research Interests:
Regulatory mechanisms of neural progenitors in brain development, diseases, & evolution
Mark E. Hatley, MD, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Hatley Lab
Research Interests:
Cellular and molecular origins of rhabdomyosarcoma
Charalampos Kalodimos, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Structural Biology
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Kalodimos Lab
Research Interests:
Structure, dynamics and operation of complex protein machineries
Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Immunology Department
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Kanneganti Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of host defense and inflammation
Jeffery M. Klco, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Division of Hematopathology and Molecular Pathology

Medical Director, Hematopathology and Immunopathology
Affiliations:
- Pathology
- Klco Lab
Research Interests:
Genomic and functional characterization of acute myeloid leukemia
Giedre Krenciute, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy
- Krenciute Lab
Research Interests:
CAR-modified T cells for treatment of childhood brain tumors
Richard W. Kriwacki, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Co-Leader, Cancer Biology Program
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Kriwacki Lab
Research Interests:
Structural basis of tumor suppressor function
Mondira Kundu, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
- Kundu Lab
Research Interests:
Autophagy regulation and relevance to cancer
Myriam Labelle, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Labelle Lab
Research Interests:
Role of platelets in cancer metastasis
Richard E. Lee, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Lee Lab
Research Interests:
Novel therapeutics for catastrophic pediatric diseases, Drug-resistant infections
Chia-Hsueh Lee, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- CH Lee Lab
Research Interests:
Molecular mechanisms of membrane signaling complexes
Chunliang Li, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Tumor Cell Biology
- Li Lab
Research Interests:
Genome editing in cancer development
Dirk Loeffler, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Xiaotu Ma, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Ma Lab
Research Interests:
Mathematical modeling of cancer initiating events
Stephen C. Mack, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Ellie Margolis, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Infectious Diseases
Research Interests:
Microbiome dynamics in immunocompromised patients and infants
Shannon McKinney-Freeman, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- McKinney-Freeman Lab
Research Interests:
HSC transplantation and development
Peter J. McKinnon, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center for Pediatric Neurological Disease Research

Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neurological Diseases.
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
- McKinnon Lab
Research Interests:
Molecular neurobiology, Mouse models of human disease, Brain tumors, Neurodegeneration, Tumor suppressors
Heather Mefford, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Genetics of pediatric neurological disease
Tanja Mittag, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- MIttag Lab
Research Interests:
Dynamic protein complexes in signal transduction
Charles Mullighan, MBBS (Hons), MSc, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Deputy Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center

Co-Leader, Hematological Malignancies Program

Medical Director, St. Jude Biorepository
Affiliations:
- Pathology
- Mullighan Lab
Research Interests:
Genomics, experimental modeling and preclinical therapeutics of acute leukemia
Kim E. Nichols, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Cancer Predisposition Division
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Nichols Lab
Research Interests:
Heritable cancers and primary immunodeficiency syndromes
Paul A. Northcott, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Northcott Lab
Research Interests:
Genomics and developmental biology of childhood brain tumors
Esther A. Obeng, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Obeng Lab
Research Interests:
Myeloid malignancies and bone marrow failure syndromes
Stacey K. Ogden, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
- Ogden Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of Hedgehog signal transduction
Joseph T. Opferman, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
- Opferman Lab
Research Interests:
Regulation of cell death during hematopoiesis
Junmin Peng, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Peng Lab
Research Interests:
Proteomics to ubiquitin biology and human disease
Jamy C. Peng, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Jamy Peng Lab
Research Interests:
Epigenetic regulation of stem cell functions
Shondra Pruett-Miller, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center for Advanced Genome Engineering

ssociate Director, Shared Resources, Comprehensive Cancer Center
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Genome-editing technologies & Disease modeling
Charles W. M. Roberts, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Executive Vice President

Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center

Director, Molecular Oncology Division
Affiliations:
- Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Roberts Lab
Research Interests:
Exploring the function of the SWI/SNF (BAF) complex: chromatin, epigenetics and cancer
P. David Rogers, PharmD, PhD, FCCP

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Rogers Lab
Research Interests:
Molecular and genetic basis of antifungal drug resistance
Jason W. Rosch, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Infectious Diseases
- Rosch Lab
Research Interests:
Bacterial genomics and metal transport
Martine F. Roussel, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Tumor Cell Biology
- Roussel-Sherr Lab
Research Interests:
Genes and microRNAs in brain tumors
Charles J. Russell, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Infectious Diseases
- Russell Lab
Research Interests:
Viral replication and vaccine design
Daniel Savic, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Savic Lab
Research Interests:
Pharmacogenomics and cis-regulatory architecture of pediatric leukemia
John D. Schuetz, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Department
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- John D. Schuetz Lab
Research Interests:
ABC transporters and mitochondrial biology
Stacey L. Schultz-Cherry, PhD

Senior Associate Dean, Academic Affairs

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Deputy Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds
Affiliations:
- Host-Microbe Interactions
- Schultz-Cherry Lab
Research Interests:
Influenza virus and astrovirus pathogenesis
Lindsay Schwarz, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Schwarz Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of neuromodulatory circuit organization
Anang A. Shelat, PhD

Development Committee, Applied Biomedical Data Sciences MS Program

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Lead Discovery Informatics
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Shelat Lab
Research Interests:
Chemical biology & Machine learning to identify and target cancer
David J. Solecki, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Solecki Lab
Research Interests:
Cell polarity in neuron precursor differentiation
Elizabeth A. Stewart, MD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Elizabeth Stewart Lab
Research Interests:
High risk pediatric solid tumors
Ji Sun, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Sun Lab
Research Interests:
Structural and pharmacological studies of membrane proteins
J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD

Executive Vice President, Scientific Director

Chair, Cell & Molecular Biology Department

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Director, St. Jude Pediatric Translational Neuroscience Initiative

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
- Taylor Lab
Research Interests:
Molecular genetics of neurological disease
Paul G. Thomas, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Thomas Lab
Research Interests:
Innate and adaptive immunity to influenza
Shengdar Q. Tsai, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Tsai Lab
Research Interests:
Genome engineering technologies for therapeutics
Steven Varga, PhD

Dean, St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Ex-officio member, Board of Trustees

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Infectious Diseases
Research Interests:
Immunopathogenesis of Respiratory Viruses, Innate and Adaptive Immunity to Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Vaccine Development, Pathogensis of Viral Co-Infections. Cancer Immunotherapy
Paulina Velasquez, MD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy
- Velasquez Lab
Research Interests:
Adoptive immunotherapy of hematological malignancies, Functional characterization of genetically modified cells
Richard Webby, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds
Affiliations:
- Infectious Diseases
- Webby Lab
Research Interests:
Influenza pathogenesis and vaccine design
Mitchell Weiss, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Hematology Department
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Weiss Lab
Research Interests:
Blood development and associated diseases
Marcin Wlodarski, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Jun J. Yang, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Yang Lab
Research Interests:
Pharmacogenomics of anticancer agents and drug resistance
Benjamin A. Youngblood, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Youngblood Lab
Research Interests:
T-cell memory differentiation and exhaustion
Jiyang Yu, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Yu Lab
Research Interests:
Systems biology, functional genomics and immuno-oncology
Stanislav Zakharenko, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Division of Neural Circuits and Behavior
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Zakharenko Lab
Research Interests:
Synaptic and neuronal mechanisms of schizophrenia
Gerard Zambetti, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice President and Director of Academic Programs in Biomedical Sciences

Associate Director, Education and Training, Comprehensive Cancer Center
Affiliations:
- Pathology
- Zambetti Lab
Research Interests:
p53 function in tumor suppression & tumorigenesis
Jinghui Zhang, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Computational Biology
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Zhang Lab
Research Interests:
Computational methods for cancer genomics
Liqin Zhu, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Lizin Zhu Lab
Research Interests:
Stem cells in normal and malignant development