Resha Sisti, CCRP, joined St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2012 and currently is a Clinical Research Associate II in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.
When Sisti initially arrived at St. Jude, she joined the Department of Immunology, spending 10 years engaged in immunology-focused research. Her work included projects on T cell responses, TCR diversity, and host responses to infection. During her time in the lab, she gained hands-on experience in virus recovery, generating ferret monoclonal antibodies, flow cytometry, CRISPR Cas9 gene editing, embryonic stem cell targeting and culture etc.
Over time, Sisti’s interests began to shift toward clinical research. As her involvement in human studies expanded, she took oversight of multiple human sample projects within the lab, which ultimately led her to formally transition into a clinical research associate role. As the first CRA in the department, Sisti managed regulatory responsibilities for multiple human studies involving samples from collaborating sites. Working under rapidly evolving conditions during Covid19, she collaborated with multiple teams to help develop protocol, consents, establish SOPs for sample processing and distribution, and manage extensive blood sample processing efforts for SJTRC study involving SJ employees.
As her experience in clinical research grew, the Kathmandu, Nepal, native sought greater exposure to patient-centered research and joined the Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy team. Working alongside a highly dedicated clinical research team, she has taken the lead on multiple protocols and gained experience in developing studies from the ground up. In BMTCT, she is a part of the hematologic malignancy team and has been involved with the Transplant, Virus Specific T cell and CAR-T protocols. Collaborating across departments has reinforced her understanding that successful clinical research is a collective effort, with each team contributing unique expertise toward improving patient outcomes.
Pursuing a master's degree in the St. Jude Graduate Schools’ Clinical Investigations program represents an opportunity to deepen her understanding of clinical research from a broader and more structured perspective. Sisti aims to apply the skills gained through this program to advance her career, take on mentorship and leadership roles, and contribute to the development and execution of impactful clinical protocols. Sisti believes the program will provide the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to help her achieve these goals and continue growing as a clinical research professional.
Hometown: Kathmandu, Nepal
Education:
2012 MS, Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology – Southern Illinois University
2008 BTech, Biotechnology – Kathmandu University
Publications:
Pogorelyy MV, Kirk AM, Adhikari S, Minervina AA, Sundararaman B, Vegesana K, Brice DC, Scott ZB; SJTRC Study Team; Thomas PG. TIRTL-seq: deep, quantitative and affordable paired TCR repertoire sequencing. Nat Methods. 2026 Jan;23(1):56-64. doi: 10.1038/s41592-025-02907-9. Epub 2025 Nov 24. PMID: 41286199; PMCID: PMC12791010.
Kirk AM, Crawford JC, Chou CH, Guy C, Pandey K, Kozlik T, Shah RK, Chung S, Nguyen P, Zhang X, Wang J, Bell M, Mettelman RC, Allen EK, Pogorelyy MV, Kim H, Minervina AA, Awad W, Bajracharya R, White T, Long D Jr, Gordon B, Morrison M, Glazer ES, Murphy AJ, Jiang Y, Fitzpatrick EA, Yarchoan M, Sethupathy P, Croft NP, Purcell AW, Federico SM, Stewart E, Gottschalk S, Zamora AE, DeRenzo C, Strome SE, Thomas PG. DNAJB1-PRKACA fusion neoantigens elicit rare endogenous T cell responses that potentiate cell therapy for fibrolamellar carcinoma. Cell Rep Med. 2024 Mar 19;5(3):101469. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2024.101469. PMID: 38508137; PMCID: PMC10983114.
Roubidoux EK, Brigleb PH, Vegesana K, Souquette A, Whitt K, Freiden P; St. Jude Investigative Team; Green A, Thomas PG, McGargill MA, Wolf J, Schultz-Cherry S. Utility of nasal swabs for assessing mucosal immune responses towards SARS-CoV-2. Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 19;13(1):17820. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-44989-5. PMID: 37857783; PMCID: PMC10587113.
Souquette A, Crawford JC, Wolf J, Blair A, Agrawal M, Boywid L, McNair K, Hysmith ND, Hundman C, Bahadoran A, Arnold SR; SJTRC Study Team; Smallwood HS, Green A, Thomas PG. Establishing thresholds for cytokine storm and defining their relationship to disease severity in respiratory viral infections. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2023 Jul 7:2023.07.06.548022. doi: 10.1101/2023.07.06.548022. PMID: 37461683; PMCID: PMC10350055.
Tang L, Cherry S, Tuomanen EI, Kirkpatrick Roubidoux E, Lin CY, Allison KJ, Gowen A, Freiden P, Allen EK, Su Y, Gaur AH, Estepp JH, McGargill MA, Krammer F, Thomas PG, Schultz-Cherry S, Wolf J; St. Jude Investigative Team. Host Predictors of Broadly Cross-Reactive Antibodies Against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Variants of Concern Differ Between Infection and Vaccination. Clin Infect Dis. 2022 Aug 24;75(1):e705-e714. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciab996. PMID: 34891165; PMCID: PMC8689782.