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St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Home
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St. Jude Family of Websites
Explore our cutting edge research, world-class patient care, career opportunities and more.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Home
- Fundraising
Clinician scientists gather data about every patient who is treated at St. Jude, ranging from genome sequencing to treatment regimens to medical imaging.
Each experiment performed in St. Jude laboratories — from cell assays to cryo-electron microscopy to transcriptomics — also generates data. Given the amount of information generated, how does St. Jude process, understand, and use these data in the most meaningful and impactful ways?
Traditionally, scientists and clinicians have focused only on the data that is relevant to their specific projects. The drawback of this approach is that it can isolate data from other researchers, thereby limiting its potential impact on a broader scale. To unify data across St. Jude, streamline analysis, develop skill and understanding, and unearth patterns that can be useful for biomedical research, St. Jude formed the Office of Data Science.
With our intellectual ecosystem of talented clinical, experimental, and data scientists united under the same mission, there’s no better place than St. Jude to build a data science enterprise of this magnitude.
Chief Data Scientist & Senior Vice President for Data Science
The Office of Data Science facilitates integrating and analyzing the vast amounts of data collected at St. Jude and helps researchers and clinicians extract meaningful, actionable insights. This innovative approach stands to make St. Jude a global leader in applying data science to biological discovery.
Leading this initiative is M. Madan Babu, PhD, FRS, senior vice president and chief data scientist. As a member of the Department of Structural Biology and the Director of the Center of Excellence for Data-Driven Discovery, Babu will expand the role of data science and data-driven approaches throughout St. Jude.
“With our intellectual ecosystem of talented clinical, experimental, and data scientists united under the same mission, there’s no better place than St. Jude to build a data science enterprise of this magnitude,” said Babu.
Office of Data Science propels innovation
The power of this comprehensive institutional approach is in the collection of large, complex, and unique datasets that can be analyzed to answer a broader scope of biological questions. The Office of Data Science is working with the Information Services department to create an institutional hub in which data are securely housed and easily accessible for researchers wishing to tap into the power of “big data”. Furthermore, Babu and his team are developing ways to ensure the institution has the capacity to meet researchers’ current and future computing needs.
Alongside these endeavors, the Office of Data Science embraces innovation by developing novel computing technologies and optimizing preexisting technologies for researchers’ computational workflows. With the establishment of the Office of Data Science, St. Jude will grow its capacity in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI), large language models, computational protein design, and quantum computing.
The push to incorporate innovation has already paid off, as Babu and his team are working to increase the efficacy and predictive power of an AI-based method called AlphaFold2. This software has been integral in predicting protein structure and function. Data scientists successfully integrated this software into the computational pipeline at St. Jude, and this effort has already shown promise in accelerating the projects of researchers studying a variety of biological questions.
We use AI in radiology to enhance image quality, increase diagnostic accuracy and detection of disease, reduce errors, and improve efficiency and communication.
Department of Diagnostic Imaging (Radiology as of Q3 of 2024)
Incorporating AI into medical imaging
The power and potential of AI have implications across departments at St. Jude, including in the Department of Radiology. As the new department Chair, Andrew Smith, MD, PhD, is integrating AI technology with medical imaging. When speaking of the impact of AI in radiology, Smith said, “Our field leads all other medical fields in the use of AI. We use AI in radiology to enhance image quality, increase diagnostic accuracy and detection of disease, reduce errors, and improve efficiency and communication.”
Andrew Smith, MD, PhD, new chair of the Department of Radiology, is integrating artificial intelligence to increase the accuracy and precision of medical imaging.
With assistance from AI, sedation time for patients undergoing positron emission tomography, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging could be decreased as image-processing speeds improve. The technology can also ensure that tumor measurements are as accurate and precise as possible, providing valuable information to clinicians creating treatment plans and determining prognoses. An AI approach to pediatric radiology will be transformative, positioning St. Jude as a global innovator of pediatric cancer imaging.
Aligning on data science
The breadth of work at St. Jude is vast and interconnected. The data generated from the clinical and research enterprises are a tremendous asset that needs a team able to shepherd, cultivate, and make the data readily available. Through the Office of Data Science and the work of Babu, Smith, and other St. Jude researchers invested in these technologies, the insights buried in data can be brought forth. With the true impact of data revealed, we can better understand human health and better serve our mission of advancing cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.