Alex Ciurej is a Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital who is interested in bone marrow transplant and cellular therapy clinical research, in particular the toxicities of these therapies (e.g. TA-TMA, cytokine release syndrome).
A native of Omaha, Neb., Ciurej completed his pediatrics residency at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan before making his way to St. Jude as a clinical fellow. He spent a number of years as a Cornhusker prior to his time in Detroit, Mich., earning his bachelor’s in biological sciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2017 before achieving his Doctor of Medicine degree in 2022 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Ciurej’s pursuit of formalized training in clinical research to improve his understanding of the research process, from its first formulation to publication, is what drove him to join the St. Jude Graduate School’s Clinical Investigations program. He plans to use what he learns with SJGS in the future with goals of being part of forming clinical research trials.
Hometown: Omaha, NE
Education:
2025-Present Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellow – St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
2025 Pediatrics Residency – Children's Hospital of Michigan
2022 Doctor of Medicine (MD) – University of Nebraska Medical Center
2017 BS, Biological Sciences (Minor in Biochemistry) – University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Awards/Honors/Scholarships:
2022-25 Pediatrics Residency Class Representative, Children’s Hospital of Michigan
2017 Graduated with Honors and High Distinction, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Publications:
A.Ciurej, S.Savaşan, K.Bhambhani, M.Gadgeel, M.Rajpurkar, and Y.Ravindranath, “Cooley's Legacy Endures—Elliptocytes in X-Linked Sideroblastic Anemia Due to Aminolevulinate Synthase 2 Mutations.” Pediatric Blood & Cancer73, no. 6 (2026): e70313. https://doi.org/10.1002/1545-5017.70313
Ciurej, A., Lewis, E., Gupte, A., & Al-Antary, E. (2023). Checkpoint immunotherapy in pediatric oncology: Will we say checkmate soon? (PMID: 38140246).
Ciurej, A., & Acquazzino, M. (2022). Oral antibiotics and early discharge for febrile neutropenia in pediatric oncology. Child Health Research Institute Pediatric Research Forum, 42. https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/chri_forum/42
Coutu, B., Alvarez, D. A., Ciurej, A., Moneymaker, K., White, K., Zhang, C., & Drincic, A. (2022). Extraocular muscle enlargement in growth hormone–secreting pituitary adenomas (PMID: 35301224).
Puniya, B. L., Amin, R., Lichter, B., Moore, R., Ciurej, A., Bennett, S. J., Shah, A. R., Barberis, M., & Helikar, T. (2021). Integrative computational approach identifies drug targets in CD4+ T-cell-mediated immune disorders. NPJ Systems Biology and Applications, 7(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41540-020-00165-3 (PMID: 33483502)