Bringing Chemistry to Medicine is an ongoing scientific symposium series hosted by the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics and the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center. The series advances the institution’s strategic objective to build a global hub for the rapidly growing field of transcription-targeted therapeutics.
Each symposium highlights leading experts from across the world who work at the intersection of chemical and biomedical sciences. Featured topics span therapeutic regulation of transcription and chromatin, computational biology, and chemical biology, along with emerging innovations shaping the next generation of biomedical discovery.
Bringing Chemistry to Medicine is presented in a hybrid format, offering participants the choice to join us on the St. Jude campus in Memphis, Tennessee, or attend virtually from anywhere in the world. Registration is free to encourage broad engagement from researchers and trainees globally.
Stay connected
- Email Updates: Sign up to receive announcements and updates for future Bringing Chemistry to Medicine Symposia, including speaker announcements and registration information. (Note: The sign-up button will be added here soon.)
- Registration: The link to register for the next symposium will be posted here when available.
- Contact: For questions, please contact the Bringing Chemistry to Medicine planning committee at BC2M@stjude.org.
Watch our Archived Lectures
Each year since 2020, St. Jude has hosted exciting two-day events focused on Transcription Therapy and Chemical Biology and Therapeutics.
Transcription Therapy at St. Jude
Over decades of research, scientists in the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center and others have discovered that several pediatric cancers emerge due to disruption in chromatin and epigenetic states and dysfunctional transcriptional regulation. While gene regulation in general has long been considered “undruggable,” scientists in the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology & Therapeutics (CBT) have created synthetic gene regulators and are devising new chemical approaches to inhibit or degrade malfunctioning components of chromatin and gene regulatory machineries. This work builds on the history of St. Jude as a pioneer in the therapeutic use of small molecules targeting gene regulation, most notably the application of glucocorticoid receptor agonists into chemotherapy regimens for pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma (ALL). The drugging of this transcription factor helped to dramatically increase overall survival rates for newly diagnosed ALL to 94% at St. Jude.
Learn more about transcription therapy at St. Jude Learn more