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 Fall 2022 season of this series, hosted by the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center runs from August through November. Register below for updates and announcements.
Invited speakers are leading experts across the spectrum of basic, translational, clinical and population science. The Rising Stars of Cancer Research lectures 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.
Seminars will occur each Thursday from 12 pm – 1 pm Central time / 1 pm – 2 pm Eastern time. Available recordings will be posted here in the week following the live event.
Hosts
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- Executive Vice President
- Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center
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- Deputy Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Co-Leader, Hematological Malignancies Program
- Medical Director, St. Jude Biorepository
August 18, 2022
Identifying Epigenetic Mechanisms of Failure in T Cell-Based Immunotherapy
Benjamin Youngblood, PhD
Associate Member
St Jude Children’s Research Hospital
August 25, 2022
Oncohistones Organize Chromatin Architecture to Regulate Developmental Programs
Nada Jabado, MD, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics and Human Genetics
McGill University
September 1, 2022
A New Model of Oncogenic Kinase Signaling via Membraneless Cytoplasmic Protein Granules
Trever Bivona, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Hematology/Oncology
University of California, San Francisco
September 8, 2022
Designing and Developing Pediatric Cancer-Specific Immunotherapies
John M. Maris, MD
Giulio D'Angio Professor of Pediatric Oncology
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
September 15, 2022
The Li-Fraumeni Syndrome Genomic Landscape: Harnessing p53 for Clinical Utility
David Malkin, MD, FRCPC
Senior Staff Oncologist & Senior Scientist,
The Hospital for Sick Children
Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Biophysics
University of Toronto
September 22, 2022
From Bedside to Bench and Back to Bedside: Travels in the Systems Biology of GVHD
Leslie S. Kean, MD, PhD
Director, Stem Cell Transplantation Program
Division of Hematology/Oncology, Boston Children’s Hospital
Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Robert A. Stranahan Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
September 29, 2022
Pediatric Oncology Drug Development – Learning from Past Successes to Create a Better Future
Malcolm A. Smith, MD, PhD
Associate Branch Chief, Pediatrics
Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP)
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
October 6, 2022
Targeting Bcl-2 Family Proteins in Leukemia
Marina Konopleva, MD, PhD
Leader of the Leukemia Program; Professor of Hematology-Oncology and Co-Director
Translational Blood Cancer Institute
Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Professor of Medicine
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
October 13, 2022
Curing Childhood Cancer and Curing Children with Cancer – Strategies to Address Global Inequities in Childhood Cancer Care and Control
Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD
Executive Vice President
Director, St. Jude Global
Chair, Department of Global Pediatric Medicine
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
October 20, 2022
Therapeutic Targeting of Epigenetic Modifiers in Leukemia
Jolanta Grembecka, PhD
Professor of Pathology
University of Michigan
October 27, 2022
The Lifetime Impact of Childhood Cancer and Cancer Therapy: The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study
Greg Armstrong, MD, MSCE
Full Member, Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
November 3, 2022
Histone Variants and Chaperones in Shaping Chromatin and Cell Fate
Dr. Geneviève Almouzni
Head of the Chromatin Dynamics team
Institut Curie - Research Center / CNRS
November 10, 2022
Co-opting the TCR Machinery to Enhance CAR T Cell Efficacy and Specificity
Robbie Majzner, MD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Hematology, Oncology, Stem Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine
Stanford University
The Evolution of Pediatric Gliomas
Pratiti (Mimi) Bandopadhayay, MBBS, PhD
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics,
Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
November 17, 2022
Title to be announced
Flora van Leeuwen
Professor of Epidemiology
Netherlands Cancer Institute
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Updates with Engineered T Cells
Carl H. June, MD
Director, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Director, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania -
The Conformational Landscape of Protein Kinases in Physiology and Disease
Charalampos Kalodimos, PhD
Member, St. Jude Faculty
Chair, Structural Biology Department
Joseph Simone Endowed Chair in Basic Research
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Genetic Susceptibility to Subsequent Neoplasms Following Childhood Cancer
Lindsay M. Morton, PhD
Senior Investigator & Deputy Branch Chief, Radiation Epidemiology Branch
Head, Cancer Survivorship Research Unit
Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute
Unraveling the Heterogeneity of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Through the Lens of Pharmacogenomics
Jun J. Yang, PhD
Member and Vice Chair, Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Identify Novel Therapeutic Opportunities in Pediatric Cancers Using High-Resolution CRISPR Tiling Scans
David Chen, PhD
Associate Professor, Systems Biology , City of Hope Cancer Center
Reading Epigenetic Landscape: New Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities
Liling Wan, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Cancer Biology
Penn Epigenetics Institute
Perelman School of Medicine, University of PennsylvaniaLecture not recorded
Disrupted Development in Pediatric High-Grade Glioma
Suzanne J. Baker, PhD
St. Jude Children's Research HospitalLecture not recorded
What Can We Learn From GWAS Data? Genetic Heterogeneity and Rare Variant Hypothesis of Cancer Risk
Yutaka Yasui, PhD
Member, Epidemiology and Cancer Control
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Pathobiology of asparaginase resistance
Alejandro Gutierrez, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.Lecture not recorded
Learning From Children: Designing Better Clinical Trials with Their Data
Katherine A. Janeway, MD, MMSc
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Senior Physician, Dana-Farber / Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
Director, Clinical Genomics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Targeting Hidden Drivers Toward Precision Oncology
Jiyang Yu, PhD
Associate Member
Department of Computational Biology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Mapping Childhood Brain Tumor Profiles Onto Normal Development Identifies Novel Therapeutic Vulnerabilities
Prof. Dr. Stefan M. Pfister
Director Preclinical Program, Hopp Children's Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ)
Head, Division of Pediatric Neurooncology, DKFZ
Deputy Head, KiTZ Clinical Trial Unit (ZIPO) and Pediatric Brain Tumors, Heidelberg University Hospital
Functional Genomics of T-Cell Metabolism and Immuno-oncology
Hongbo Chi, PhD
Member and Robert G. Webster Endowed Chair in Immunology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Discovering and Targeting Neuroblastoma Vulnerabilities: ALK Inhibition as a Paradigm
Yaël Mossé, MD
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Human Metabolic Outliers
Ralph J. DeBerardinis, MD, PhD
HHMI Investigator and Professor
Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT SouthwesternLecture not archived
Clonal Evolution and Somatic Reversion in Genetic Predisposition to TP53-Mutated MDS
Akiko Shimamura, MD, PhD
Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Samuel E. Lux IV Chair in Hematology Oncology
Director, Bone Marrow Failure and MDS Program
Dana Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
Secondary Breast Cancer: A Paradigm for Survivorship Research
Kevin Oeffinger, MD
Director
DCI Center for Onco-Primary Care
Duke University -
Deconvoluting the Origins of Acute Leukemia
Charles G. Mullighan, MBBS (Hons), MSc, MD
Member, Pathology
Deputy Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Identification of Biomarkers, Models and Targets to Improve Outcomes and Precision Approaches for Neuroblastoma
Meredith Irwin, MD
Paediatrician-in-Chief
The Hospital for Sick Children
Chair, Department of Paediatrics; Professor, Departments of Paediatrics; Medical Biophysics; Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology
University of Toronto
Modulation of the Activity of the Dominant Oncogene EWS-FLI1 by Germline Polymorphisms and Cohesin Mutations
Olivier Delattre, MD, PhD
Inserm Research Director
Head of Cancer, Heterogeneity, Instability and Plasticity Department
Head of the Pediatric Oncology Center
Institut Curie, Paris, France
The Role of Survivorship Research in Advancing Childhood Cancer Care and Quality of Survival
Melissa M. Hudson, MD
Director, Cancer Survivorship Division
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Deciphering Somatic Evolution with Single-Cell Multi-Omics
Dan A. Landau, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology
Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics
Weill Cornell Medical College
Core Member
New York Genome CenterLecture not archived.
The Biology, Diagnosis, and Management of T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Lymphoma
David T. Teachey, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Oncology
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania
Perelman School of Medicine
Sunlight and Skin: Lessons for Melanoma Therapeutics From Its Unique Pathogenesis
David E. Fisher, MD, PhD
Professor of Dermatology and Pediatrics
Chair, Dept of Dermatology
Mass General Hospital & Harvard Medical School
Influence of Metabolism on Cancer Progression
Matt Vander Heiden, MD, PhD
Director, Koch Institute
Lester Wolfe Professor in Molecular Biology
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
Epigenetic Mechanisms of Tumorigenesis
Bradley Bernstein, MD, PhD
Chair, Department of Cancer Biology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Institute Member
Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
Rising Stars of Cancer Research
Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Redirected Macrophages for the Treatment of Solid Tumors
Saar Gill, MBBS, PhD, FRACP
Associate Professor of Medicine
Scientific Co-Director, Cell Therapy and Transplantation
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Rising Stars of Cancer Research
Engineering Next-Generation CAR-T Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy
Yvonne Y. Chen, PhD
Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics
University of California, Los AngelesLecture not archived.
What Will it Take To Cure Every Child with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia?
Mignon Loh, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Benioff Chair of Children’s Health
Deborah and Arthur Ablin Endowed Professor of Pediatric Molecular Oncology
Chair, ALL Committee, Children’s Oncology Group
Benioff Children’s Hospital, UCSF, San Francisco, CA
CAR T Cell Therapies for Childhood Cancer, the University College London Experience
Martin Pule, MB, FRCPath
Senior Lecturer in Haematology
University College London
Interventions to Prevent or Remediate Frailty in Childhood Cancer Survivors
Kirsten K. Ness, PT, PhD, FAPTA
Member, Epidemiology and Cancer Control
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Rising Stars of Cancer Research
Tailoring Medulloblastoma Therapy to Fit the Evolving Molecular Landscape
Giles Robinson, MD
Associate Member, Oncology Department
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Rising Stars of Cancer Research
Developmental Pathways, Plasticity and Novel Treatment Opportunities in Pediatric High-Grade Brain Tumors
Mariella Filbin, MD, PhD
Attending Physician in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Co-Director for Research, Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Program
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorder CenterLecture not archived.
Persister Act: Near-Death Experiences in Cancer Cells
Douglas R. Green, PhD
Chair, Immunology Department
Co-Leader, Cancer Biology Program
Peter C. Doherty Endowed Chair of Immunology
St. Jude Children's Research HospitalLecture not yet archived.
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Genomic Variants in Pediatric Cancer: Landscape, Precision Oncology, and Data Sharing Ecosystem
Jinghui Zhang, PhD
Chair, Department of Computational Biology
St. Jude Endowed Chair in Bioinformatics
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Original lecture date: January 28
Will We Ever Cure Cancer?
Richard Gilbertson, MD, PhD
Li Ka Shing Chair of Oncology
Head, Department of Oncology
Director, Cancer Research UK Major Centre
University of Cambridge, England
Original lecture date: February 4
Chromatin Complexes as Therapeutic Opportunities in Cancer
Scott Armstrong, MD, PhD
President, Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
Chair, Department of Pediatric Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
David G. Nathan Professor of Pediatrics
Harvard Medical School
Original lecture date: February 11
Financial Hardship After Childhood Cancer
Robin Yabroff, PhD, MBA
Scientific Vice President, Health Services Research
American Cancer Society
Original lecture date: February 18
Mechanisms of Leukemogenesis in Children with Down Syndrome
John Crispino, PhD, MBA
Director, Division of Experimental Hematology
The Wall Street Committee Endowed Chair
Department of Hematology
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Original lecture date: February 25
Therapeutic Targeting of Self-Renewal of Medulloblastoma Stem Cells: Strategies for Blocking Recurrence
Sheila Singh, MD, PhD, FRCS(C)
Pediatric Neurosurgeon, McMaster Children's Hospital
Professor of Surgery, McMaster University
Principal Investigator, Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute, McMaster University
Senior Canada Research Chair in Human Cancer Stem Cell Biology
University Scholar, Chair, McMaster College of Health Inventors
Original lecture date: March 4
Single Cell Atlases as Roadmaps in Pediatric Cancer
Aviv Regev, PhD
Head of Research and Early Development
Genentech
Original lecture date: March 11
Successes and Challenges in Pediatric Cancer: The COG Perspective
Douglas S. Hawkins, MD
Chair of Children's Oncology Group
Professor of Pediatrics
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle Children’s Hospital
Original lecture date: March 18
Pediatric High-grade Glioma – Novel Drivers Define a Spectrum of New Tumor Subgroups
David T.W. Jones, PhD
Group Leader, 'Pediatric Glioma Research'
Hopp Children’s Cancer Center (KiTZ)
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)
Original lecture date: March 25
A Role for Metabolism in Cancer Development and Progression
Karen Vousden, PhD
Senior Group Leader
The Francis Crick Institute
Original lecture date: April 1Lecture not archived
Identifying Strategies to Improve HPV Vaccination Among Childhood Cancer Survivors
Anne Kirchhoff, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Investigator
University of Utah/Huntsman Cancer Institute
Original lecture date: April 8
Data Science Approaches to GPCR Signaling and Personalized Medicine
Madan Babu, PhD, FRSC
Endowed Chair in Biological Data Science
Director, Center of Excellence for Data Driven Discovery
Department of Structural Biology
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Original lecture date: April 15
Genetic and Epigenetic Approaches Towards Understanding Risk of Chronic Health Conditions Among Survivors of Childhood Cancer
Zhaoming Wang, PhD
Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control
Department of Computational Biology
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Original lecture date: April 22
A First-generation Pediatric Cancer Dependency Map
Kimberly Stegmaier, MD
Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Ted Williams Chair and Vice Chair of Pediatric Oncology Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Institute Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT
Original lecture date: April 29, 2021
Structure and Function of Mammalian SWI/SNF Chromatin Remodeling Complexes in Human Cancer
Cigall Kadoch, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatric Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School
Institute Member and Epigenomics Program Co-Director, Broad Institute
Original lecture date: May 6, 2021 -
CAR T Cells: On the Road to Synthetic Immunity
Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD
Director, Center for Cell Engineering
Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair
Member, Immunology Program
Member, Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Original lecture date: August 13
Chromatin Remodeler Mutations in Cancer: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Vulnerabilities
Charles W.M. Roberts, MD, PhD
Member, St. Jude Faculty
Executive Vice President
Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center
Director, Division of Molecular Oncology
Department of Oncology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Original lecture date: August 20
The Future of CAR T Cells for Hematologic Malignancies: Beyond Antigen Targeting
Terry J. Fry, MD
Professor of Pediatrics, Hematology and Immunology
Co-Director, Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Initiative and Director of Cancer Immunotherapy
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Robert and Kathleen Clark Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer Therapeutics
Children’s Hospital Colorado, Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders
Original lecture date: August 27
Phase Separation in Gene Transcription: From the Nucleolus to Aberrant Transcription in Leukemia
Richard W. Kriwacki, PhD
Co-Leader, Cancer Biology Program
Department of Structural Biology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Original lecture date: September 3
Late Effects Among Survivors of Blood or Marrow Transplantation
Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH
Director, Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship
Gay and Bew White Endowed Chair in Pediatric Oncology
Professor and Vice Chair, Dept. of Pediatrics
School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Original lecture date: September 10
Advancing CAR T Cells for the Treatment of Glioblastoma: Progress and Challenges
Christine Brown, PhD
Heritage Provider Network Professor of Immunotherapy
Deputy Director, T Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratory
City of Hope
Original lecture date: September 17Lecture not archived.
Cognitive Outcomes of Childhood Cancer: Neurophysiology, Biomarkers and Interventions
Kevin R. Krull, PhD
Endowed Chair, Cancer Survivorship
Faculty Member, Departments of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, and Psychology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Original lecture date: September 24
3D Chromosomal Organization in Pediatric Leukemia: Impact for Drug Response and Disease Progression
Iannis Aifantis, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Pathology and Perlmutter Cancer Center
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Original lecture date: October 1
Medulloblastomics 2020: Biological & Clinical Insights From 1,000s of Patients
Paul A. Northcott, PhD
Associate Faculty Member, Department of Developmental Neurobiology
Division of Brain Tumor Research
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Original lecture date: October 8
CAR T Cells for Pediatric Cancers: Progress and Challenges
Crystal Mackall, MD
Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine
Founding Director, Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy
Director, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford
Associate Director, Stanford Cancer Institute
Leader, Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program
Director, Cancer Immunotherapy Program
Department of Pediatrics - Hematology & Oncology
Department of Medicine - Blood & Marrow Transplantation
Stanford University
Original lecture date: October 15
Partitioning of Cancer Therapeutics in Nuclear Condensates
Richard A. Young, PhD
Professor, Department of Biology
Member, Whitehead Institute
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Isaac A. Klein, MD, PhD
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Whitehead Institute
Original lecture date: October 22
Harnessing Lineage Plasticity for the Treatment of Neuroblastoma
Rani George, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Dept. of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children's Hospital
Original lecture date: October 29
Organized Destruction and Destructive Organization: The Diversity of Immune Responses Towards Tumors and Pathogens
Paul G. Thomas, PhD
Faculty Member, Department of Immunology
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Original lecture date: November 5
Targeting Neuron-Glial Interactions in Childhood Brain Cancer
Michelle Monje, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Neurology & Neurological Sciences
Stanford University
Original lecture date: November 12
Emerging Late Effects of Targeted Molecular Therapies
Eric Chow, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Clinical Research Division
Associate Professor, Public Health Sciences Division
Director, Prevention Center Shared Resource
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Medical Director, Cancer Survivorship Program
Seattle Children's Hospital
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
University of Washington
Original lecture date: November 19
Comprehensive Cancer Center
St. Jude is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children.