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St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Home
St. Jude Family of Websites
Explore our cutting edge research, world-class patient care, career opportunities and more.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Home
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 series, hosted by the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center, originally launched in August 2020 and features leading experts across the spectrum of basic, translational, clinical and population science. Explore our library of archived lectures below, and visit our registration page to receive updates about upcoming live events. View past lectures organized by category.
| Date | Speaker | Title | Lecture Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05.14.2026 | Kim Stegmaier, MD Professor, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute |
Targeting Fusion-driven Cancers This lecture was canceled |
Hematological malignancies |
| 05.07.2026 | Nickhill Bhakta, MD, MPH Associate Member, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Leveraging global health priorities to advance scientific discovery | Perspectives |
| 040.30.2026 | Rachel Rau, MD Associate Professor, Seattle Children’s Hospital |
How blinatumomab changed B-ALL therapy and what comes next | Hematological malignancies, immunotherapy |
| 04.23.2026 | Dario Campana, MD, PhD Professor, National University of Singapore |
Developing immune cell therapies for cancer: historical insights, current applications, and pathways to broader impact |
Immunotherapy, hematological malignancies |
| 04.16.2026 | Mondira Kundu, MD, PhD Member, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Exploring the role of somatic mtDNA mutations in acute leukemia |
Hematological malignancies, cancer biology |
| 04.09.026 | Francesca Del Bufalo, MD, PhD Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital |
GD2-CART01 for pediatric solid tumors: achievements, challenges and future directions |
Immunotherapy, solid tumors |
| 04.02.2026 | Michel Sadelain, MD, PhD Professor, Columbia University |
Predicting and Preventing Late-occurring Adverse Outcomes in Childhood Cancer Survivors Recording not available |
Immunotherapy |
| 03.26.2026 | Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH Distinguished Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham |
Predicting and Preventing Late-occurring Adverse Outcomes in Childhood Cancer Survivors | Survivorship |
| 03.19.2026 | Steven DuBois, MD Professor, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute |
Accessing Innovative Medicines for Children and Adolescents with Cancer |
Targeted therapies, clinical trials |
| 03.12.2026 | Michelle Monje, MD, PhD Professor, Stanford University |
The neuroscience of childhood brain cancers | Brain tumors |
| 03.05.2026 | Trevor Pugh, PhD, FACMG Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Ontario Institute for Cancer Research |
The CHARM of it all: Cell-free DNA sequencing for Hereditary And High-Risk Malignancies |
Hematological malignancies, data science |
| 02.26.2026 | Rising Star of Cancer Research Lily Guenther, MD Assistant Member, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Machine learning-based prediction of alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) identifies a novel dependency in ATRX-mutant ALT-positive pediatric solid tumors Recording not available |
Cancer biology, solid tumors |
| 02.26.2026 | Rising Star of Cancer Research Tim Coorens, PhD Research Group Leader, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) |
Tracing the origins of childhood cancer through genome sequencing |
Cancer biology, solid tumors |
| 02.19.2026 | John Dick, PhD, FRS Professor, University of Toronto |
Hematological malignancies, cancer biology | |
| 02.12.2026 | Charles Mullighan, MBBS (Hons), MSc, MD Member, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Hematological malignancies, targeted therapies | |
| 02.05.2026 | Crystal Mackall, MD Professor, Stanford University |
Developing CAR T Cell Therapies for Children’s Cancers Recording not available |
Immunotherapy, brain tumors |
| 11.20.2025 | Kevan Shokat, PhD Professor University of California, San Francisco |
Overcoming the undruggable nature of the most common human oncogene: K-Ras | Targeted therapies, cancer biology |
| 11.13.2025 | Martha Donoghue, MD Dominik Karres, MD |
This lecture was canceled Joint lecture: Working together for timely pediatric cancer drug development: EMA and FDA perspectives |
Perspectives, clinical trials |
| 11.06.2025 | Ken Aldape, MD Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota |
DNA Methylation and Artificial Intelligence for the Diagnosis and Classification of CNS Tumors | Brain tumors, epigenetics |
| 10.30.2025 | Danielle Friedman, MD Associate Member Memorial Sloan Kettering |
Bridging surveillance and mechanistic insights to address cardiometabolic risk in childhood cancer survivors | Survivorship |
| 10.23.2025 | Alberto Pappo, MD Member St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Pediatric melanocytic tumors: a 34-year journey of discovery and progress | Solid tumors |
| 10.16.2025 | Benshang Li, MD The Director of Cell Therapy Center Shanghai Children’s Medical Center |
CAR T-cell therapy: experience from SCMC | Immunotherapy |
| 10.09.2025 | Lynley Marshall, PhD The Royal Marsden Hospital and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK |
‘Faster, higher, stronger’ (together) - clinical drug development in children and young people with cancer | Targeted therapies, clinical trials |
| 10.02.2025 | Jeremy Rich, MD, MHS, MBA Deputy Director for Research & Chief Scientific Officer Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
Killing cancer stem cells | Brain tumors, cancer biology |
| 09.25.2025 | Anindita Roy, MRCPCH, FRCPath, PhD Professor University of Oxford |
Developmental origins of infant acute lymphoblastic leukaemia | Hematological malignancies, cancer biology |
| 09.18.2025 | Alex Kentsis, MD, PhD Director, Tow Center for Developmental Oncology Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center |
Developmental mutagenesis: A unified theory of why young people develop cancer | Cancer biology, targeted therapies |
| 09.11.2025 | Rising Star of Cancer Research Chris DeRenzo, MD Associate Member St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Advancing CAR T cell therapies for pediatric patients with solid tumors Recording not available |
Immunotherapy, solid tumors |
| 09.11.2025 | Rising Star of Cancer Research Paulina Velasquez, MD Associate Member St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Next-generation cell therapy approaches for high-risk leukemias Recording not available |
Immunotherapy, hematological malignancies |
| 09.04.2025 | Vijay Sankaran, MD, PhD Professor Boston Children's Hospital & Harvard Medical School |
Inherited risk for and resilience to blood cancers | Hematological malignancies, cancer biology |
| 08.28.2025 | Karen Rabin, MD, PhD Professor University of California, San Francisco |
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children with Down syndrome: insights and challenges | Hematological malignancies, cancer biology |
| 08.21.2025 | Stephen Mack, PhD Associate Member St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Deciphering the molecular and cellular basis of fusion driven ependymoma to uncover novel therapies | Brain tumors, targeted therapies |
| 08.14.2025 | William G. Kaelin, MD Professor Dana Farber Cancer Institute |
150th Science of Childhood Cancer Lecture |
Cancer biology, targeted therapies |
| 05.15.2025 | Leonard Zon, MD Director, Stem Cell Program, Boston Children’s Hospital Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Grousbeck Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School |
The leukemic niche - endothelial and macrophage control of clonality | Hematological malignancies, cancer biology |
| 05.05.2025 | Chris Vakoc, MD, PhD Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
Transcriptional dependencies in cancer | Epigenetics, cancer biology |
| 05.01.2025 | Tanja Mittag, PhD Member, Department of Structural Biology St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital |
Dissecting mechanisms underlying transcription factor phase separation in function and disease | Cancer biology |
| 04.24.2025 | Doug Hawkins, MD Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital |
Looking back and looking forward for the Children’s Oncology Group | Perspectives, clinical trials |
| 04.17.2025 | 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 |
The ZERO Childhood Cancer - a national pediatric cancer precision medicine program | Cancer biology, targeted therapies |
| 04.10.2025 | 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 |
Less heat, more light: discovering smarter therapies for pediatric brain tumors Recording not available |
Brain tumors, targeted therapies |
| 04.03.2025 | Hanna Mikkola, MD, PhD Professor, Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California Los Angeles |
Dissecting human hematopoietic stem cell development, self-renewal and transformation Recording not available |
Hematological malignancies |
| 03.27.2025 | Omar Abdel-Wahab, MD Edward P. Evans Chair in MDS; Chair, Molecular Pharmacology Program Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center |
New therapeutic approaches for myeloid & lymphoid leukemias Recording not available |
Hematological malignancies, immunotherapy |
| 03.20.2025 | Chris Jones, PhD Head of Division of Molecular Pathology Institute of Cancer Research, London UK |
Lineage-specific dependencies in paediatric-type diffuse high-grade glioma | Cancer biology, brain tumors |
| 03.13.2025 | Greg Wang, PhD Professor, Duke Cancer Institute and Duke University School of Medicine |
Chromatin-based regulations of gene transcription and oncogenesis | Cancer biology, epigenetics |
| 03.06.2025 | Rising Star of Cancer Research: Cindy Im, PhD, MPH Assistant Professor University of Minnesota |
Precision survivorship: predicting primary ovarian insufficiency risk in female survivors of childhood cancer | Survivorship, data science |
| 03.06.2025 | Rising Star of Cancer Research: Stephanie Dixon, MD, MPH Assistant Member St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital |
Cardiometabolic risk factors in survivorship: a target to reduce morbidity and mortality | Survivorship |
| 02.27.2025 | Jan-Henning Klusmann, MD, PhD Director of the Department of Pediatrics, Professor for Pediatric Goethe University Frankfurt |
Targeting aberrant splicing in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia Recording not available |
Hematological malignancies, targeted therapies |
| 02.13.2025 | James R. Downing, MD President and CEO St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo MD Chair, Department of Global Pediatric Medicine St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Transforming global pediatric cancer care: an update on strategies to address global inequities in childhood cancer care and control | Perspectives |
| 02.06.2025 | Martine Roussel, PhD Member, St. Jude Faculty |
Developing new models and therapies for high-risk pediatric embryonal brain tumors | Brain tumors, targeted therapies |
| 11.14.2024 | Michael Dyer, PhD Chair, Developmental Neurobiology Department |
Developmental programs contribute to chemoresistance in pediatric solid tumors | Solid tumors, targeted therapy |
| 11.07.2024 | Alexander Stark, PhD Senior Group Leader |
Decoding transcriptional regulation Recording not available |
Data science, epigeneticsq |
| 10.31.2024 | Wendy Landier, PhD, CRNP Professor, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology |
Addressing the challenges of HPV vaccination in young cancer survivors | Survivorship, clinical trials |
| 10.24.2024 | Greg Reaman, MD Scientific Director, Childhood Cancer Data Initiative |
The Childhood Cancer Data Initiative: An update | Data science, perspectives |
| 10.17.2024 | Mark Hatley, MD, PhD Associate Member |
Developmental heterogeneity in rhabdomyosarcoma | Cancer biology, solid tumors |
| 10.10.2024 | Cynthia Hawkins, MD, PhD Neuropathologist, The Hospital for Sick Children |
Oncogenesis in pediatric glioma, moving beyond the genome | Cancer biology, brain tumors |
| 10.03.2024 | Stephanie Halene, MD Chief, Section of Hematology |
RNA biology in MDS and modeling myelodysplasia | Cancer biology, hematological malignancies |
| 09.26.2024 | Howard Chang, MD PhD Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine |
Cancer genes beyond chromosomes | Cancer biology, epigenetics |
| 09.19.2024 | Adam Palmer, PhD Assistant Professor, Computational Medicine Program |
Modeling curative combination therapies | Cancer biology, data science |
| 09.12.2024 | Torsten Haferlach, MD PhD CEO, Munich Leukemia Laboratory |
Diagnosis of leukemia: from phenotype to genotype to artificial intelligence | Hematological malignancies |
| 09.05.2024 | Charles WM Roberts, MD PhD Member, St. Jude Faculty |
Chromatin and cancer: from mechanisms to emerging therapies | Epigenetics, cancer biology |
| 08.29.2024 | Guillermina Lozano, PhD Chair, Department of Genetics |
Wild type and mutant p53 functions | Cancer biology, solid tumors |
| 08.22.2024 | Stephen Gottschalk, MD Chair, Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy |
Engineered cell therapy for pediatric cancer | Immunotherapy, solid tumors |
| 08.15.2024 | Rising Star of Cancer Research: Assistant Professor of Pediatrics |
Targeting transcription factors to augment CAR T cell fitness | Immunotherapy |
| 08.15.2024 | Rising Star of Cancer Research: Assistant Professor of Genetics |
Decoding CAR T-cell phenotype using combinatorial signaling motif libraries and machine learning | Hematological malignancies, immunotherapy |
| 08.08.2024 | Rob Pieters, MD PhD MSc Chief Medical Officer |
Recent results from translational and clinical studies in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the Princess Máxima Center | Hematological malignancies |
| 05.16.2024 | Heather Conklin, PhD Chief, Division of Neuropsychology; Full Member, Department of Psychology and Biobehavioral Sciences St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital |
Improving Cognitive Outcomes for Children Treated for Cancer: Moving Beyond the Cure | Survivorship |
| 05.09.2024 | Rising Star of Cancer Research Matt Ehrhardt, MD, MS Associate Member St. Jude Children's Research Hospital |
Guideline development and delivery of precision-survivorship care Recording not available |
Survivorship |
| 05.09.2024 | Rising Star of Cancer Research Kira Bona, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Harvard Medical School Attending Physician, Pediatric Oncology Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center |
Poverty as a "druggable" target: opportunities and challenges for health equity research Recording not available |
Survivorship, clinical trials |
| 05.02.2024 | Sriram Venneti, MD, PhD Associate Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics; Al and Robert Glick Family Research Professor of Pediatrics; Scientific Research Director, Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center, University of Michigan Medical School |
Metabolism and epigenetics as integrated drivers of childhood brain cancer | Epigenetics, brain tumors |
| 04.25.2024 | Gilles Vassal, MD, PhD Gustave Roussy Comprehensive Cancer Center, Villejuif, France |
Accelerating therapeutic innovations for children and adolescents with cancer | Clinical trials, perspectives |
| 04.18.2024 | Daniel Herranz, PharmD, PhD Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Pediatrics Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey |
Novel therapeutic targets in T-cell Leukemia Recording not available |
Hematological malignancies, targeted therapies |
| 04.11.2024 | Poul Sorensen, BSc, MD, PhD, FRCPC Professor, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine The University of British Columbia |
Targeting metabolic vulnerabilities in high-risk childhood cancer using immunotherapy (and other modalities) Recording not available |
Immunotherapy, cancer biology |
| 04.04.2024 | Jenny Mack, MD, MPH Associate Professor of Pediatrics. Harvard Medical School Associate Chief, Division of Population Sciences, Faculty Vice President for the Office for Faculty Development, Professionalism, and Inclusion Dana-Farber Cancer Institute |
Quality of care for adolescents and young adults with advanced cancer | Survivorship |
| 03.28.2024 | Kai Tan, PhD Professor of Pediatrics, Richard & Sheila Sanford Endowed Chair Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine |
Stem cell programs in high risk leukemias |
Hematological malignancies |
| 03.21.2024 | Kara Davis, DO Stanford University |
Understanding treatment resistance and relapse in ALL through single cell studies | Hematological malignancies, targeted therapies |
| 03.14.2024 | Mark Dawson, MBBS (Hons), BMedSci, FRACP, FRCPA, PhD Professor, Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology & Centre for Cancer Research University of Melbourne HHMI International Research Scholar, CCV Sir Edward Dunlop Fellow, Associate Director for Research Translation, Consultant Haematologist (RMH / PMCC) Head, Cancer Biology & Therapeutics Program |
Non-genetic mechanisms of clonal dominance in normal and malignant haematopoiesis | Hematological malignancies, epigenetics |
| 03.07.2024 | Rising Star of Cancer Research Jarno Drost, PhD Group leader, Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology Group leader, Oncode Institute |
Organoids in pediatric cancer research | Solid tumors, brain tumors |
| 03.07.2024 | Rising Star of Cancer Research Adam Durbin, MD, PhD Assistant Member, Division of Molecular Oncology, Department of Oncology St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital |
Dissecting epigenetic control of transcription in pediatric cancer | Epigenetics, solid tumors |
| 02.29.2024 | Sharon Castellino, MD, MSc Professor of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta |
Beyond owl eyes - advances in pediatric and AYA Hodgkin lymphoma | Survivorship, hematological malignancies |
| 02.22.2024 | Marcel Kool, PhD Group leader, deputy division head, Division of Pediatric Neuro-oncology, Hopp Children’s Cancer Center (KiTZ) & German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg, Germany Group leaders, Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology, Utrecht, the Netherlands Professor, pediatric brain tumors, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands |
Molecular and clinical analyses of rare pediatric brain tumor types Recording not available |
Brain tumors |
| 02.15.2024 | Jian Xu, PhD Member, Center of Excellence for Leukemia Studies, Department of Pathology St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital |
Understanding and targeting the non-coding regulatory genome | Hematological malignancies, epigenetics |
| 02.08.2024 | Bing Ren, PhD Director, Center for Epigenomics; Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine University of California, San Diego |
Single-cell epigenome analysis: methods and applications Recording not available |
Epigenetics |