Dr. Rebecca Epperly was drawn to pediatric oncology by a desire to improve outcomes for children and adolescents with high-risk malignancies. The incredible resilience of her patients and their families keeps her motivated and passionate about translating laboratory findings to harness the immune system into cell-based immune therapies to the clinic.
She earned her medical degree from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City (2014). Dr. Epperly completed her pediatrics residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh (2017). She followed residency with fellowships in pediatric hematology/oncology (2020) and bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapy (2021) at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Dr. Epperly joined the St. Jude Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy in 2021 as a clinical scientist. Her work focuses on early phase evaluation of novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies.
“I am pursuing the Master of Science in Clinical Investigations to build on my foundation in clinical research methodology. I hope to gain insights to enhance collaborations across the multidisciplinary translational and clinical research team.”
Education
Fellowship in Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (2021)
Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (2020)
Pediatrics Residency - University of Pittsburgh Medical Center/Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (2017)
MD - University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine (2014)
Publications
Epperly R, Talleur AC, Li Y, Schell S, Tuggle M, Métais JY, Huang S, Pei D, Cheng C, Madden R, Mamcarz E, Naik S, Qudeimat A, Sharma A, Srinivasan A, Suliman A, Gottschalk S, Triplett BM. Sub-myeloablative second transplantations with haploidentical donors and post-transplant cyclophosphamide have limited anti-leukemic effects in pediatric patients. Transplant Cell Ther May 1;28(5):262.e1-262.e10, 2022.
Maron GM, Hijano DR, Epperly R, Su Y, Tang L, Hayden RT, Naik S, Karol SE, Gottschalk S, Triplett BM, Talleur AC. Infectious complications in pediatric, adolescent and young adult patients undergoing CD19-CAR T cell therapy. Front Oncol Mar 9;12:845540, 2022.
Hebbar N, Epperly R, Vaidya A, Thanekar U, Moore SE, Umeda M, Ma J, Patil SL, Langfitt D, Huang S, Cheng C, Klco JM, Gottschalk S, Velasquez MP. CAR T cells redirected to cell surface GRP78 display robust anti-acute myeloid leukemia activity and do not target hematopoietic progenitor cells. Nat Commun Jan 31;13(1):587, 2022.
Epperly R, Gottschalk S, Velasquez MP. A bump in the road: How the hostile AML microenvironment affects CAR T cell therapy. Front Oncol Feb;10:262, 2020. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.00262.
Epperly R, Furman W, Hines M, Santiago T, Li Y, Madden R, Mamcarz E, Cervi D, Federico S, Triplett B, Talleur A. Secondary hemophagocytic syndrome after autologous hematopoietic cell transplant and immune therapy for neuroblastoma. Pediatr Blood Cancer Aug; e27964, 2019. doi: 10.1002/pbc.27964.