St. Jude Research
PTNI

Center Without Walls

The Center Without Walls (CWW) leverages resources and capabilities within the broader PTNI and is available to St. Jude faculty from all departments that are engaged on relevant neuroscience research. The CWW encourages institution-wide collaborations that advance the understanding of pediatric neurological diseases. Membership is open to clinical and basic science faculty working on neuroscience-themed research and allows access to PTNI core facilities and resources. By providing technical and intellectual support, the CWW will create new capabilities and foster greater productivity.  

Investigators across the institution will have opportunities to secure internal grant funding for developmental and small-scale projects that align with the goals and mission of the PTNI. These multi-year institutional grants are designed to bolster investigators as they generate preliminary data and formulate hypotheses to secure extramural support to further expand research efforts.  

Who we are

The Center Without Walls is a key program within the Pediatric Translational Neuroscience Initiative (PTNI). CWW is membership-based and serves as a vehicle that both promotes and provides opportunities for St. Jude faculty to build upon their own investigator-driven research programs through a comprehensive set of member benefits.

  • Leadership: J Paul Taylor is the founding director of the CWW. In this role, Dr. Taylor coordinates engagement of the St. Jude community with PTNI, oversees CWW's internal funding programs, and develops enrichment opportunities and other benefits for CWW benefits.

Our programs

The CWW offers a full suite of programs designed to foster research relevant to pediatric neurological disease, including state-of-the-art shared resources, internal funding support, and opportunities for enrichment and collaboration both within and beyond St. Jude.

  • Shared Resources: Histology Core, Microscopy Core, Proof of Concept Lab
  • PTNI Patient Registry and Biorepository
  • Development grants and postdoctoral fellowships
  • Seminar and Workshop series

FAQs

  1. Why is CWW important to the mission of PTNI?

    Because every corner of St. Jude houses expertise and approaches that can be brought to bear on the problem of pediatric neurological disease. These range from the most granular basic sciences (e.g., structural biology and chemical biology) to systems-level sciences (e.g., developmental neurobiology and immunology) and diverse clinical activities (e.g., radiology, epidemiology, and biostatistics). CWW provides an organized way to ensure that the best science and ideas across St. Jude that can have an impact for children with catastrophic pediatric neurological disorders are fully applied to finding treatments and improving quality of life for this population. 

  2. Who can be a member of CWW?

    Membership is open to St. Jude researchers working on basic, translational, or clinical research that has relevance to the mission of PTNI — i.e., broadly emphasizing pathogenesis and/or treatment approaches applicable to pediatric neurological disease — even if the St. Jude investigator is not currently applying the research to neuroscience. Researchers who wish to engage with CWW and do not yet have an active area of research related to the PTNI mission are also welcome to join with the goal of identifying potential areas for future collaboration. 

  3. What are the benefits of being a member of CWW and how does CWW support my research?

    There are multiple benefits to being a CWW member, including:

    • New streams of internal funding support through developmental grants and postdoctoral fellowships

    • Access to shared resources for basic and clinical scientists, including a histology core and microscopy core within CPNDR, a Proof of Concept Lab (coming soon), and the PTNI Registry & Biorepository

    • Participation in PTNI seminar series and workshops

    • Access to external alliances through the Office of Strategy & Alliances

    • Increased opportunities for publication

    • Increased visibility both inside and outside the institution

    • Thought partnership and collaboration 

Contact us

  • For basic science inquiries: peter.mckinnon@stjude.org
  • For clinical research inquiries: richard.finkel@stjude.org
  • For all other inquiries: kristin.stephenson@stjude.org