Bradley Stevens’ interest in biomedical science research began during his undergraduate career. While earning his degree, he participated in medical cannabis soil microbiome research. The research group analyzed the dynamics of the bacterial and fungal communities between healthy and diseased plants. While Stevens enjoyed this experience, the draw to biomedical sciences pushed him to participate in the Undergraduate Pipeline Network (UPN) summer REU at the University of New Mexico where he studied how exposure to the environmental toxicant Tungsten can lead to changes in the tumor microenvironment that facilitate metastasis.
Stevens earned his bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in chemistry in 2018 from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) in Socorro, New Mexico. During this time, he conducted research in the lab of Rodolfo Tello-Aburto, PhD, where he worked to find selective proteasome inhibitors from natural product derivates that would be effective treatments for hematologic malignancies like multiple myeloma and leukemia. He then earned a master’s degree in biology with a specialization in biochemistry in 2020 from NMT.
He currently works in the lab of Mark Hatley, MD, PhD, Department of Molecular Oncology, where he works on understanding the core regulatory circuit members of rhabdomyosarcoma and the role they play in tumor identity.
“There is no place like St. Jude, where you are able to pursue groundbreaking basic and translational science while directly interacting with world-class researchers and having access to state-of-the-art facilities,” he says. “Everyone at St. Jude is unified by the goal of preventing childhood malignancies. It is truly an amazing place.”
Hometown: Albuquerque, New Mexico