Heather Mefford, MD, PhD
Faculty, Department of Cell & Molecular Biology
Heather Mefford, MD, PhD, is a faculty member in the Department of Cell & Molecular Biology at St. Jude.
Stories by Heather Mefford
Discovering how T cell “exhaustion” is triggered could energize cancer immunotherapy
Read how the discovery of this gene could change immunotherapy cancer and viral infection treatments.
‘Black hole’ of cancer journey? Transition oncology program fills the gap
You’re just out of cancer treatment – now what? Read about the transition oncology program that helps young cancer patients get back to living.
Enzymes that unlock stress granules, our cells’ biological ‘storm shelters,’ open pathway to treating muscle, brain disorders
Stress granules form from heat shock to the cell then disappear, but when treated with an inhibitor to the protein ULK, the stress granules persist event after removal of the stress.
Length matters in dipeptide repeat polypeptides – and can be a way to treat ALS
Read how the length of these proteins may be an indicator of ALS.
Exploring survivorship: The when and how of treatment strategies matter in adult survivors of childhood ALL
It used to be just about surviving–now, it’s about treating children with ALL to live long, healthy lives. Learn about ALL survivorship research from ASCO.
Having trouble reading? Hearing loss could be part of the problem
There’s a link between hearing loss and difficulty learning to read – and researchers are looking into helping young brain tumor survivors bolster their reading skills.
Researchers introduce real-time clinical genomics data using St. Jude Cloud platform at 2019 ASCO annual meeting
Scott Newman, PhD, shares the release of real-time clinical genomics data through the St. Jude Cloud platform at the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, Illinois.
Collaboration is the key to fighting childhood cancer worldwide
The biggest factor in childhood cancer survival is where you’re born. This group is doing something to ensure that doesn’t matter.
Resources, collaboration: two components of great research
Read how this woman coordinates and sometimes invents resources at this top research facility to help scientists doing critical work.
Researchers develop method to dramatically reduce error rate in next-generation sequencing
It’s easier to find a needle in a haystack when you take away the hay – read how this research team is reducing gene sequencing errors.