Dr. Shannon R. Sweeney is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Developmental Neurobiology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She is applying her expertise in cancer biology to look at pediatric tumors through a developmental lens and understand the role of developmental programming in pediatric cancer initiation and relapse.
Sweeney graduated with a BA in Chemistry and Religious Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2005. She received her MA in Nutritional Sciences in 2015 and her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2020, both from the University of Texas at Austin.
Sweeney is motivated by the translation of scientific discoveries into better outcomes for pediatric cancer patients. She chose to pursue training in clinical investigations to become acquainted with the full ‘bench to bedside’ research process. The close collaboration between researchers and clinicians at St. Jude makes it the perfect place for someone with Sweeney’s background to train in clinical investigations.
Hometown: Lyons, CO
Education:
PhD, Cell and Molecular Biology – University of Texas at Austin (2020)
MA, Nutritional Sciences – University of Texas at Austin (2015)
BA, Chemistry, Religious Studies – University of Colorado at Boulder (2005)
Publications:
Honnell V, Sweeney S, Norrie J, Parks M, Ramirez C, Jannu A, Xu B, Teubner B, Lee AY, Bell C, Dyer MA (in press). Identification of Evolutionarily Conserved VSX2 Enhancers in Retinal Development. Development.
Zhang Q, Riley-Gillis B, Han L, Jia Y, Lodi A, Zhang H, Ganesan S, Pan R, Konoplev SN, Sweeney SR, Ryan JA, Jitkova Y, Dunner K, Grosskurth SE, Vijay P, Ghosh S, Lu C, Ma W, Kurtz S, Ruvolo VR, Ma H, Weng CC, Ramage CL, Baran N, Shi C, Cai T, Davis RE, Battula VL, Mi Y, Wang J, DiNardo CD, Andreeff M, Tyner JW, Schimmer A, Letai A, Padua RA, Bueso-Ramos CE, Tiziani S, Leverson J, Popovic R, Konopleva M (2022). Activation of RAS/MAPK pathway confers MCL-1 mediated acquired resistance to BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax in acute myeloid leukemia. Signal Transduct Target Ther DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41392-021-00870-3. 7(51).
Sweeney SR, Collins M, Pandey R, Chiou J, Lodi A, Tiziani S (2020). Identification of a synergistic combination of dimethylaminoparthenolide and shikonin alters metabolism and inhibits proliferation of pediatric precursor-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Mol Carcinog DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/mc.23163. 59: 399–411.