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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

Development Committee, Applied Biomedical Data Sciences MS Program

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Brian Abraham Lab
Research Interests:
Transcriptional regulation & computational pipelines to synthesize and distill complicated transcriptional processes and how they go awry in diseased cells.
Asya Agulnik, MD, MPH

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Global Critical Care Program, St. Jude Global

Director, Eurasia Regional Program, St. Jude Global
Affiliations:
- Global Pediatric Medicine
- Asya Agulnik Clinical Research Profile
Salvador Almagro-Moreno, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Host-Microbe Interactions
Fernando Cruz Alsina, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Aseem Ansari, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Chemical Biology & Therapeutics

R. J. Ulrich Endowed Chair
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Ansari Lab
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

George J. Pedersen Endowed Chair in Biological Data Sciences
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Babu Lab
Research Interests:
Data science for discovery and personalized medicine
Suzanne Baker, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Brain Tumor Research Division
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Baker Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms driving diffuse high-grade glioma (HGG) in children
Senthil Bhoopalan, MBBS, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy
Jay B. Bikoff, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Bikoff Lab
Research Interests:
Neural circuits controlling movement
Daniel J. Blair, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Blair Lab
Scott C. Blanchard, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Single-molecule Imaging Center
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Blanchard Lab
Research Interests:
Examining structure-function relationships in macromolecular assemblies
Samuel W. Brady, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Computational Biology
Joshua Burns, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Epidemiology and Cancer Control
- Comprehensive Cancer Center
Xinwei Cao, PhD

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

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

Member, St. Jude Faculty

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

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

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Immunology

Co-Director, Center of Excellence for Pediatric Immuno-Oncology (CEPIO)

Associate Director, Basic Research, Comprehensive Cancer Center
Affiliations:
Research Interests:
Cellular signaling in innate and adaptive immunity
Wilson K. Clements, PhD

Associate Dean, Biomedical Sciences PhD Program

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Clements Lab
Research Interests:
Vascular/hematopoietic development and leukemia
Jeremy Chase Crawford, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Host-Microbe Interactions
John D. Crispino, PhD, MBA

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Division of Experimental Hematology
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Crispino Lab
Tommaso Cupido, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Cupido Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanism and regulation of protein machines, Chemical Probe Discovery, Cancer biology
Hai T. Dao, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Andrew M. Davidoff, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Surgery Department

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

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

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Demontis Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of skeletal muscle aging, protein homeostasis, and myokines
Marta Derecka, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Adam Durbin, MD, PhD

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

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Developmental Neurobiology
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Dyer Lab
Research Interests:
Retinal development and retinoblastoma
Yongqiang Feng, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Feng Lab
Research Interests:
Novel strategies to better manipulate immune cell behaviors
Marcus Fischer, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Fischer Lab
Research Interests:
Protein conformational landscape for ligand discovery
Paul Geeleher, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Geeleher Lab
Research Interests:
Genomics, Drug repurposing, Neuroblastoma
Bryan A. Gibson, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Stephen Gottschalk, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

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

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Green Lab
Research Interests:
Apoptosis, autophagy, and mitochondria
Lillian M. Guenther, MD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Alejandro Gutierrez, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Alejandro Gutierrez Lab
Mario Halic, PhD

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

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Han Lab
Research Interests:
Regulatory mechanisms of neural progenitors in brain development, diseases, & evolution
Jane S. Hankins, MD, MS

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Hematology
Mark E. Hatley, MD, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Hatley Lab
Research Interests:
Cellular and molecular origins of rhabdomyosarcoma
Elizabeth Hillman, PhD

Chair, Department of Imaging Sciences

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Endowed Chair

Research Interests:
Development of dynamic image analysis, modelling and data visualization methods.
Bo Hu, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Comprehensive Cancer Center
Yuuta Imoto, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Imoto Lab
Research Interests:
Synaptic vesicle recycling with millisecond and nanometer resolution
Dolores Irala, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Liza-Marie Johnson, MD, MPH, MSB

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Quality of Life and Palliative Care Division
Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Immunology Department
Affiliations:
- Immunology
- Kanneganti Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of host defense and inflammation
Elizabeth Kellogg

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- Kellogg Lab
Jeffery M. Klco, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Division of Hematopathology and Molecular Pathology

Medical Director, Hematopathology and Immunopathology
Affiliations:
- Pathology
- Klco Lab
Research Interests:
Genomic and functional characterization of acute myeloid leukemia
Giedre Krenciute, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy
- Krenciute Lab
Research Interests:
CAR-modified T cells for treatment of childhood brain tumors
Kevin Krull, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Psychology and Biobehavioral Sciences

Endowed Chair in Psychology
Affiliations:
Mondira Kundu, MD, PhD

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

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Labelle Lab
Research Interests:
Role of platelets in cancer metastasis
Chia-Hsueh Lee, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- CH Lee Lab
Research Interests:
Molecular mechanisms of membrane signaling complexes
Richard E. Lee, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Chemical Biology & Therapeutics
- Lee Lab
Research Interests:
Novel therapeutics for catastrophic pediatric diseases, Drug-resistant infections
Markos Leggas, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center for Translational Pharmacology
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Center for Translational Pharmacology
Chunliang Li, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Tumor Cell Biology
- Li Lab
Research Interests:
Genome editing in cancer development
Cai Li, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Biostatistics
Qian Li, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Dirk Loeffler, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Peijun Ma, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Xiaotu Ma, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Computational Biology
- Ma Lab
Research Interests:
Mathematical modeling of cancer initiating events
Stephen C. Mack, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Shannon McKinney-Freeman, PhD

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

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Center for Pediatric Neurological Disease Research

Endowed Chair in Pediatric Neurological Diseases.
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
- McKinnon Lab
Research Interests:
Molecular neurobiology, Mouse models of human disease, Brain tumors, Neurodegeneration, Tumor suppressors
Heather Mefford, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Cell and Molecular Biology
Research Interests:
Genetics of pediatric neurological disease
Asunción Mejías, MD, PhD, MsCS

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Infectious Diseases
- Asunción Mejías Research
Tanja Mittag, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Structural Biology
- MIttag Lab
Research Interests:
Dynamic protein complexes in signal transduction
Charles Mullighan, MBBS (Hons), MSc, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Co-Leader, Hematological Malignancies Program

Medical Director, St. Jude Biorepository
Affiliations:
- Pathology
- Mullighan Lab
Research Interests:
Genomics, experimental modeling and preclinical therapeutics of acute leukemia
Andrew Jackson Murphy, MD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chief, General Pediatric Surgery Division

Pediatric Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program Director
Affiliations:
- Surgery
- Murphy Lab
Kiel Neumann, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Min Ni, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Ni Lab
Paul A. Northcott, PhD

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

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

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

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Cell & Molecular Biology
- Opferman Lab
Research Interests:
Regulation of cell death during hematopoiesis
Brent Orr, MD, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty

Medical Director, Anatomic Pathology
Affiliations:
- Pathology
Haitao Pan, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Biostatistics
- Pan Group
Anand Patel, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Oncology
- Patel Lab
Junmin Peng, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

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

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Jamy Peng Lab
Research Interests:
Epigenetic regulation of stem cell functions
Octavio Ramilo, MD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Infectious Diseases
Affiliations:
- Infectious Diseases
- Ramilo Research Lab
Charles W. M. Roberts, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Executive Vice President

Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center

Director, Molecular Oncology Division
Affiliations:
- Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Roberts Lab
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
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Rogers Lab
Research Interests:
Molecular and genetic basis of antifungal drug resistance
Jason W. Rosch, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Host-Microbe Interactions
- Rosch Lab
Research Interests:
Bacterial genomics and metal transport
Jeffrey Rybak, PharmD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Rybak Lab
Yadav Sapkota, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Epidemiology and Cancer Control
- Yadav Sapkota Clinical Research Profile
Daniel Savic, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Savic Lab
Research Interests:
Pharmacogenomics and cis-regulatory architecture of pediatric leukemia
John D. Schuetz, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Department
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- John D. Schuetz Lab
Research Interests:
ABC transporters and mitochondrial biology
Stacey L. Schultz-Cherry, PhD

Senior Associate Dean, Academic Affairs

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Deputy Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds
Affiliations:
- Host-Microbe Interactions
- Schultz-Cherry Lab
Research Interests:
Influenza virus and astrovirus pathogenesis
Lindsay Schwarz, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Schwarz Lab
Research Interests:
Mechanisms of neuromodulatory circuit organization
Subodh Selukar, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Biostatistics
Anang A. Shelat, PhD

Development Committee, Applied Biomedical Data Sciences MS Program

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty

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

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Solecki Lab
Research Interests:
Cell polarity in neuron precursor differentiation
Deo Kumar Srivastava, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Elizabeth A. Stewart, MD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Elizabeth Stewart Lab
Research Interests:
High risk pediatric solid tumors
Paul G. Thomas, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Host-Microbe Interactions
- Thomas Lab
Research Interests:
Innate and adaptive immunity to influenza
Victor J. Torres, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Department of Host-Microbe Interactions

Director, Center for Infectious Diseases Research

Albert and Rosemary Joseph Endowed Chair in Host-Microbe Interactions
Affiliations:
- Host-Microbe Interactions
- Torres Lab
Shengdar Q. Tsai, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Tsai Lab
Research Interests:
Genome engineering technologies for therapeutics
Steven Varga, PhD

Dean, St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Ex-officio member, Board of Trustees

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Infectious Diseases
Research Interests:
Immunopathogenesis of Respiratory Viruses, Innate and Adaptive Immunity to Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Vaccine Development, Pathogensis of Viral Co-Infections. Cancer Immunotherapy
Paulina Velasquez, MD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy
- Velasquez Lab
Research Interests:
Adoptive immunotherapy of hematological malignancies, Functional characterization of genetically modified cells
Jason Vevea, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Vevea Lab
Richard Webby, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds
Affiliations:
- Host-Microbe Interactions
- Webby Lab
Research Interests:
Influenza pathogenesis and vaccine design
Mitchell Weiss, MD, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Chair, Hematology Department
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Weiss Lab
Research Interests:
Blood development and associated diseases
Marcin Wlodarski, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
Jian Xu, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Pathology
- Xu Lab
Masayuki Yamashita, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Hematology
- Masayuki Yamashita Lab
Jun J. Yang, PhD

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Vice-Chair, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Affiliations:
- Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Yang Lab
Research Interests:
Pharmacogenomics of anticancer agents and drug resistance
Jun Yang, MD, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Surgery
- Jun Yang Lab
Jonathan Yen, PhD

Associate Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director of Therapeutic Genome Engineering
Affiliations:
- Hematology
Benjamin A. Youngblood, PhD

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

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

Member, St. Jude Faculty

Director, Division of Neural Circuits and Behavior
Affiliations:
- Developmental Neurobiology
- Zakharenko Lab
Research Interests:
Synaptic and neuronal mechanisms of schizophrenia
Yunlong Zhao, PhD

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty
Affiliations:
- Department of Immunology
- Yunlong Zhao Lab