The Science of Childhood Cancer is an interactive, weekly lecture series designed to engage the scientific community on key questions in pediatric cancer research. The Spring 2025 lecture season begins February 6 and runs through May 15. You may register below for future seasons of the series, hosted by the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Invited speakers are leading experts across the spectrum of basic, translational, clinical and population science. The Rising Stars of Cancer Research lecture in the 15-week series will feature thematically related talks by two early- to mid-career investigators conducting exciting and innovative work in the field.
Lectures occur each Thursday from 12 pm – 1 pm Central time / 1 pm – 2 pm Eastern time and are often followed by an extended Q&A session. Available recordings will be posted the week following the live event.
Hosts
-
- Executive Vice President
- Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center
-
- Co-Leader, Hematological Malignancies Program
- Medical Director, St. Jude Biorepository
Upcoming lectures
February 6, 2025
Developing new models and therapies for high-risk pediatric embryonal brain tumors
Martine Roussel, PhD
Full Member, Endowed Chair in Molecular Oncology, Department of Tumor Cell Biology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
February 13, 2025
Transforming global pediatric cancer care: an update on strategies to address global inequities in childhood cancer care and control
James Downing, MD
President and CEO
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD
Director, St. Jude Global
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
February 20, 2025
Explorations of the Cancer Conditioned Microenvironment for the Development of New Cell Therapies
Rosandra Kaplan, MD
Senior Investigator
Head, Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis Section
Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health
February 27, 2025
Targeting aberrant splicing in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia
Jan-Henning Klusmann, MD, PhD
Director of the Department of Pediatrics, Professor for Pediatric
Goethe University Frankfurt
March 6, 2025
Rising Stars of Cancer Research
Cardiometabolic risk factors in survivorship: a target to reduce morbidity and mortality
Stephanie Dixon, MD, MPH
Assistant Member
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Late effects of therapy among survivors of childhood cancer: leveraging “big data” to stratify risk
Cindy Im, PhD, MPH
Assistant Member
University of Minnesota
March 13, 2025
Chromatin-based regulations of gene transcription and oncogenesis
Greg Wang, PhD
Professor
Duke Cancer Institute and Duke University School of Medicine
March 20, 2025
Lineage-specific dependencies in paediatric-type diffuse high-grade glioma
Chris Jones, PhD
Head of Division of Molecular Pathology
Institute of Cancer Research, London UK
March 27, 2025
New RNA-based therapeutics for the treatment of leukemia
Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD
Edward P. Evans Chair in MDS, Chair, Molecular Pharmacology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
April 3, 2025
Dissecting human hematopoietic stem cell development, self-renewal and transformation
Hanna Mikkola, MD, PhD
Professor, Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Los Angeles
April 10, 2025
Less heat, more light: discovering smarter therapies for pediatric brain tumors
Rob Wechsler-Reya, PhD
H. Houston Merritt Professor of Neurological Sciences, Department of Neurology
Scientific Director of Brain Tumor Research, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center
Columbia University Medical Center
April 17, 2025
The ZERO Childhood Cancer - a national pediatric cancer precision medicine program
Paul Ekert, MB.BS, PhD, FRACP
Deputy Director, Children’s Cancer Institute, UNSW
Group Leader, Translational Tumour Biology Laboratory
Head, Translational Genomics ZERO Childhood Cancer Program
April 24, 2025
Looking back and looking forward for the Children’s Oncology Group
Doug Hawkins, MD
Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital
May 1, 2025
Dissecting mechanisms underlying transcription factor phase separation in function and disease
Tanja Mittag, PhD
Member, Department of Structural Biology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
May 8, 2025
Transcriptional dependencies in cancer
Chris Vakoc, MD, PhD
Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
May 15, 2025
The leukemic niche - endothelial and macrophage control of clonality
Leonard Zon, MD
Director, Stem Cell Program, Boston Children’s Hospital
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Grousbeck Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
150th lecture
Comprehensive Cancer Center
St. Jude is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children.
