Mackenzie Bloom arrived at St. Jude with a passion for research and stem cell biology. She is specifically interested in the mechanisms of cell fate determination and how perturbations in that process can contribute to human diseases such as cancer.
Bloom earned her bachelor’s degree in biology-genetics in 2017 from the University of Kansas in Lawrence. During her undergraduate career, she received the Kansas Idea Network of Biomedical Research Excellence Star Trainee Fellowship to conduct her undergraduate honor’s thesis in the lab of Dr. Kristi Neufeld. She was also the founder and president of the student chapter of the Society for Biomaterials at the University of Kansas.
Bloom currently works in the lab of Kim Nichols, MD, Cancer Predisposition director, where she contributes to research focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of germline, leukemia predisposing mutations. Specifically, her work will reveal how germline mutations in the gene ETV6 effects hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to contribute to hereditary, hematopoietic disease. These insights will allow us to provide better care for children with these types of genetic risks. She earned her master’s degree from the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in June 2018.
“I want the research I do to help people,” she says. “I walk around St. Jude and think, ‘this is how a research facility is supposed to feel.’ It is happy and joyful in a setting that conveys a true sense of hope.”
Hometown: Superior, Colorado
Dissertation: Etv6 as a Major Regulator of Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cell Maintenance
Honors and Awards
2018-2019 St Jude Graduate Student of the Year
2016-2017 KINBRE STAR Trainee Fellow
Publications
Bloom, M., Maciaszek, JL., Clark, ME., Pui, CH., Nichols, KE., Recent Advances in Genetic Predisposition to Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Expert Review of Hematology, 13: 55-70, 2019. doi.org/10.1080/17474086.2020.1685866.