Home
St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Dissertation Mentors for PhD in Biomedical Sciences Current Page

Dissertation Mentors: PhD in Biomedical Sciences

Find out more about the PhD program world-class biomedical research faculty and their research interests. Most accept students for laboratory rotations and dissertation projects.

Brian J. Abraham, PhD

Course Director, Computational Biology

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Computational Biology
Research Interests:
Transcriptional regulation & computational pipelines to synthesize and distill complicated transcriptional processes and how they go awry in diseased cells.
Aseem Ansari, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
Departments:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
Research Interests:
Synthetic gene regulators, Artificial Transcription Factors, Precision Medicine, RNA Polymerase II transcription cycle
M. Madan Babu, PhD, FRSC

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center of Excellence for Data Driven Discovery
Departments:
- Structural Biology Department
Research Interests:
Data science for discovery and personalized medicine
Suzanne Baker, PhD

Associate Dean, Biomedical Sciences PhD Program

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Brain Tumor Research Division
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Mechanisms driving diffuse high-grade glioma (HGG) in children
Jay B. Bikoff, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Neural circuits controlling movement
Scott C. Blanchard, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Single-molecule Imaging Center
Departments:
- Structural Biology
Research Interests:
Examining structure-function relationships in macromolecular assemblies
Xinwei Cao, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Growth control during neural tube development
Chi-Lun Chang, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Dynamic regulation of inter-organelle communication
Taosheng Chen, PhD, PMP

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, High Throughput Bioscience Center
Departments:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
Research Interests:
Drug discovery technologies; Drug toxicity, Resistance & Human diseases
Xiang Chen, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Computational Biology
Research Interests:
OMICS integration and tumor heterogeneity by machine learning approaches
Yong Cheng, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Hematology
Research Interests:
Cis-regulatory modules in hematopoiesis and its disorders
Hongbo Chi, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Immunology
Research Interests:
Cellular signaling in innate and adaptive immunity
Wilson K. Clements, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Hematology
Research Interests:
Vascular/hematopoietic development and leukemia
Tommaso Cupido, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
Research Interests:
Mechanism and regulation of protein machines, Chemical Probe Discovery, Cancer biology
Alessandra d'Azzo, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Genetics
Research Interests:
Intracellular degradation in development & disease
Andrew M. Davidoff, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Surgery Department

Director, Surgical Research
Departments:
- Surgery
Research Interests:
Neuroblastoma, renal tumors, germ cell tumors; Angiogenesis inhibition for cancer therapy
Christopher DeRenzo, MD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Bone Marrow Transplant
Research Interests:
Adoptive cell therapy for solid tumors, CAR-T cells
Fabio Demontis, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of skeletal muscle aging, protein homeostasis, and myokines
Adam Durbin, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Oncology
Research Interests:
Transcriptional and epigenetic control in neuroblastoma
Michael Dyer, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Developmental Neurobiology
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Retinal development and retinoblastoma
Yongqiang Feng, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Immunology
Research Interests:
Novel strategies to better manipulate immune cell behaviors
Marcus Fischer, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
Research Interests:
Protein conformational landscape for ligand discovery
Paul Geeleher, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Computational Biology
Research Interests:
Genomics, Drug repurposing, Neuroblastoma
Stephen Gottschalk, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy
Departments:
- Bone Marrow Transplant
Research Interests:
Cancer immunotherapy, cell therapy, stem cell transplantation
Douglas R. Green, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Immunology Department
Departments:
- Immunology
Research Interests:
Apoptosis, autophagy, and mitochondria
Gerard C. Grosveld, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Genetics Department
Departments:
- Genetics
Research Interests:
The role of chromosome translocations in cancer
Mario Halic, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Structural Biology
Research Interests:
Regulation of genome expression
Young-Goo Han, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Regulatory mechanisms of neural progenitors in brain development, diseases, & evolution
Mark E. Hatley, MD, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Oncology
Research Interests:
Cellular and molecular origins of rhabdomyosarcoma
Linda M. Hendershot, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Tumor Cell Biology
Research Interests:
ER quality control in development and disease
Charalampos Kalodimos, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Structural Biology
Departments:
- Structural Biology
Research Interests:
Structure, dynamics and operation of complex protein machineries
Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Immunology Department
Departments:
- Immunology
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of host defense and inflammation
Jeffery M. Klco, MD, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Division of Hematopathology and Molecular Pathology

Medical Director, Hematopathology and Immunopathology
Departments:
- Pathology
Research Interests:
Genomic and functional characterization of acute myeloid leukemia
Andrew T. Kodani, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Human genetics underlying neurodevelopmental disorders
Giedre Krenciute, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Bone Marrow Transplant
Research Interests:
CAR-modified T cells for treatment of childhood brain tumors
Richard W. Kriwacki, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Co-Leader, Cancer Biology Program
Departments:
- Structural Biology
Research Interests:
Structural basis of tumor suppressor function
Mondira Kundu, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Autophagy regulation and relevance to cancer
Myriam Labelle, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Role of platelets in cancer metastasis
Richard E. Lee, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
Research Interests:
Novel therapeutics for catastrophic pediatric diseases, Drug-resistant infections
Chia-Hsueh Lee, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Structural Biology Department
Research Interests:
Molecular mechanisms of membrane signaling complexes
Chunliang Li, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Tumor Cell Biology
Research Interests:
Genome editing in cancer development
Xiaotu Ma, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Computational Biology
Research Interests:
Mathematical modeling of cancer initiating events
Ellie Margolis, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Infectious Diseases
Research Interests:
Microbiome dynamics in immunocompromised patients and infants
Maureen A. McGargill, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Immunology
Research Interests:
T-cell regulation to treat autoimmune disease
Shannon McKinney-Freeman, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Hematology
Research Interests:
HSC transplantation and development
Peter J. McKinnon, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center for Pediatric Neurological Disease Research
Departments:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Molecular neurobiology, Mouse models of human disease, Brain tumors, Neurodegeneration, Tumor suppressors
Heather Mefford, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Genetics of pediatric neurological disease
Tanja Mittag, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Structural Biology
Research Interests:
Dynamic protein complexes in signal transduction
Tudor Moldoveanu, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Structural Biology
Research Interests:
Programmed cell death in health and disease
Charles Mullighan, MBBS (Hons), MSc, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Deputy Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center

Co-Leader, Hematological Malignancies Program

Medical Director, St. Jude Biorepository
Departments:
- Pathology
Research Interests:
Genomics, experimental modeling and preclinical therapeutics of acute leukemia
Kim E. Nichols, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Cancer Predisposition Division
Departments:
- Oncology
Research Interests:
Heritable cancers and primary immunodeficiency syndromes
Paul A. Northcott, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Genomics and developmental biology of childhood brain tumors
Esther A. Obeng, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Oncology
Research Interests:
Myeloid malignancies and bone marrow failure syndromes
Stacey K. Ogden, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of Hedgehog signal transduction
Joseph T. Opferman, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Regulation of cell death during hematopoiesis
Junmin Peng, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics
Departments:
- Structural Biology
Research Interests:
Proteomics to ubiquitin biology and human disease
Jamy C. Peng, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Epigenetic regulation of stem cell functions
Shondra Pruett-Miller, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center for Advanced Genome Engineering

ssociate Director, Shared Resources, Comprehensive Cancer Center
Departments:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Genome-editing technologies & Disease modeling
Charles W. M. Roberts, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Executive Vice President

Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center

Director, Molecular Oncology Division
Departments:
- Comprehensive Cancer Center
Research Interests:
Exploring the function of the SWI/SNF (BAF) complex: chromatin, epigenetics and cancer
P. David Rogers, PharmD, PhD, FCCP

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Departments:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research Interests:
Molecular and genetic basis of antifungal drug resistance
Jason W. Rosch, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Infectious Diseases
Research Interests:
Bacterial genomics and metal transport
Martine F. Roussel, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Tumor Cell Biology
Research Interests:
Genes and microRNAs in brain tumors
Charles J. Russell, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Infectious Diseases
Research Interests:
Viral replication and vaccine design
Daniel Savic, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research Interests:
Pharmacogenomics and cis-regulatory architecture of pediatric leukemia
Erin G. Schuetz, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research Interests:
Pharmacogenetics and regulation of drug detoxification genes
John D. Schuetz, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Department
Departments:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research Interests:
ABC transporters and mitochondrial biology
Stacey L. Schultz-Cherry, PhD

Associate Dean, Student Affairs

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Deputy Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds
Departments:
- Infectious Diseases
Research Interests:
Influenza virus and astrovirus pathogenesis
Lindsay Schwarz, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of neuromodulatory circuit organization
Anang A. Shelat, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Lead Discovery Informatics and Compound Management
Departments:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
Research Interests:
Chemical biology & Machine learning to identify and target cancer
David J. Solecki, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Cell polarity in neuron precursor differentiation
Elizabeth A. Stewart, MD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
High risk pediatric solid tumors
Ji Sun, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Structural Biology
Research Interests:
Structural and pharmacological studies of membrane proteins
J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Cell & Molecular Biology Department

Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Director, St. Jude Translational Neuroscience Initiative
Departments:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Molecular genetics of neurological disease
Paul G. Thomas, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Immunology
Research Interests:
Innate and adaptive immunity to influenza
Shengdar Q. Tsai, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Hematology
Research Interests:
Genome engineering technologies for therapeutics
Paulina Velasquez, MD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Bone Marrow Transplant
Research Interests:
Adoptive immunotherapy of hematological malignancies, Functional characterization of genetically modified cells
Richard Webby, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds
Departments:
- Infectious Diseases
Research Interests:
Influenza pathogenesis and vaccine design
Mitchell Weiss, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Hematology Department
Departments:
- Hematology
Research Interests:
Blood development and associated diseases
Jun J. Yang, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Departments:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research Interests:
Pharmacogenomics of anticancer agents and drug resistance
Benjamin A. Youngblood, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Immunology
Research Interests:
T-cell memory differentiation and exhaustion
Jiyang Yu, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Computational Biology
Research Interests:
Systems biology, functional genomics and immuno-oncology
Stanislav Zakharenko, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Division of Neural Circuits and Behavior
Departments:
- Developmental Neurobiology
Research Interests:
Synaptic and neuronal mechanisms of schizophrenia
Gerard Zambetti, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice President and Director of Academic Programs in Biomedical Sciences

Associate Director, Education and Training, Comprehensive Cancer Center
Departments:
- Pathology
Research Interests:
p53 function in tumor suppression & tumorigenesis
Jinghui Zhang, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Computational Biology
Departments:
- Computational Biology
Research Interests:
Computational methods for cancer genomics
Liqin Zhu, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Departments:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research Interests:
Stem cells in normal and malignant development