St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Delivering quality-assured cancer medicines to low- and middle-income countries presents many challenges and requires collaborative efforts by a wide variety of experts around the world. At the World Cancer Congress in Geneva this week, Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD, Chair, St. Jude Department of Pediatric Medicine, and Director of St. Jude Global, led a session discussing these aspects of the Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines. Other speakers in the session include delegates from WHO, UNICEF and PAHO, as well as representatives from Zambia, Mongolia and Ecuador who will discuss their roles in addressing the challenges of delivering quality medicines effectively in low- and middle-income countries. The collaborative Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines initiative was created by St. Jude and World Health Organization to provide an uninterrupted supply of medicines to low- and middle-income countries for the treatment of childhood cancer. The challenges of availability, quality and cost are different in each country and forming unified efforts to address those challenges between the institutions, governments, the pharmaceutical industry, nongovernmental organizations and the nonprofit sector is key to establishing effectiveness for the Global Platform. In other sessions, Catherine Lam, MD, MPH, FRCPC, FAAP, discussed understanding and addressing childhood cancer disparities between high-income and low-income countries; and Michael McNeil, MD, MPH, discussed a model of education and training to advance global integration of Pediatric Palliative Care.

A wide array of experts, students and professionals in bioinformatics, imaging, data science and software engineering took the opportunity to innovate, learn and collaborate at the St. Jude KIDS24 (Knowledge in Data Science) BioHackathon this month. In the third annual event, teams worked on projects to create software-based solutions to address questions and challenges proposed by the research community. “It’s nice to have a more direct connection at times to the noble endeavor of the research going on here,” said Kennon Silence, Sr. Technical Support Specialist at St. Jude. The BioHackathon has already proven fruitful in the research community. In 2022, graduate school student Christy LaFlamme led a team to build the methylation pipeline used for a study of unsolved pediatric developmental and epileptic encephalopathies, identifying causes of severe and complex epilepsies in children. All team members were included as co-authors in a paper detailing the study in Nature Communications earlier this year, showing the event's collaborative nature. “Needless to say, you will learn something at this event, regardless of what particular expertise or skills you bring to the table,” LaFlamme said.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Sickle Cell Awareness Month. Clark Tower will honor the work done by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to end childhood cancer and sickle cell disease by lighting the building in red and gold each night. We invite our tenants, visitors, and followers to learn how they can support St. Jude’s mission by visiting www.stjude.org.

It’s never too early to start planning your next career step. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital invites you to join a virtual research career, education and training fair on September 25th, from 10AM- 6PM CT. Join recruiters, faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and employees to learn about our cutting-edge research, training environment, career opportunities and benefits at St. Jude. Registration is free: https://ow.ly/MFfr50Tqm5h

Neuroblastoma remains one of the most challenging cancers affecting children — about 700 new cases are diagnosed every year in the United States alone. Of these, nearly half face high-risk disease, requiring strenuous treatments such as surgery, high-dose chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation, immunotherapy and radiation. At St. Jude, Sara Federico, MD, and Julie R. Park, M.D., are leaders in neuroblastoma clinical research, keeping the hospital at the forefront of neuroblastoma research advancement through different collaborative studies. Describing the state of high-risk neuroblastoma therapy today, Federico, who is Director of the Solid Tumor Division in the Department of Oncology at St. Jude, sums it up succinctly: "Novel therapies are desperately needed." Collaboration is at the heart of progress in cancer research. Clinical trials often require large numbers of participants to ensure reliable data, so cooperative groups such as the Children's Oncology Group (COG) are an essential part of pediatric cancer research. These networks unite experts across multiple institutions to address complex questions that individual researchers or hospitals couldn't tackle alone. Beyond COG, St. Jude also participates in the New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) consortium, which focuses on developing new treatments for relapsed and high-risk neuroblastoma. Park is Chair of NANT, helping lead the organization which is the only international clinical trials group dedicated exclusively to this cause, offering families more options through innovative early-phase trials. “Understanding how to develop trials that are accessible, how to get therapies to patients faster – that's the place for NANT, to get the initial data, and do the correlative analyses that really can’t be done in large cooperative group trials so that we learn as much as we can from every patient,” explains Park, who is Chair of the St. Jude Department of Oncology. Through cooperative groups such as COG and NANT, researchers at St. Jude are shaping the future of neuroblastoma treatment. By working together across institutions, investigators can achieve far more than any one investigator could alone. By leading and participating in these groups, St. Jude is ensuring that the latest scientific advancements reach the patients who need them most. Read more here: https://ow.ly/7qie50Tovxi

Join us on September 19th at 12PM CT/1PM ET to explore the latest trends in combination therapy with Assistant Professor Adam Palmer, PhD from UNC Chapel Hill. Gain insights on tumor heterogeneity and curative potential of drug combinations. Register here: https://ow.ly/xCZ550TmlrM

Mentorship is the backbone of scientific careers, and at St. Jude is built into programs designed to guide the next generation of researchers. The STEMM Education and Outreach High School Research Immersion (HSRI) program pairs local students with seasoned St. Jude scientists, offering a hands-on lab experience. In the program’s third year this summer, Gwen Alexander, PhD, HSRI Program Manager, recognized the need for additional support and introduced a new initiative—undergraduate student mentors who eased the workload for scientists and strengthened lab relationships by giving the students a near-peer to bridge the gap to the senior staff. Alexander explained, “The mentor assistant program was launched based on feedback from mentors. It provided an extra resource for principal investigators to support their students while managing their labs’ regular operations.” While the primary role of the student mentors is to assist the principal investigator in training and supervising, their close age to the HSRI students helps establish rapport and friendships, enriching the mentoring experience and expanding their professional peer network.  “Being closer to their age helps me relate to their knowledge level and build on it,” said Joselyn Pierce, one of the undergraduate mentors. The undergraduate mentor program not only enriches students’ experiences in the HSRI but also enhances the leadership skills of the student mentors. “Mentors shared positive feedback related to their productivity while facilitating the mentored experiences,” said Alexander. “It holds promise for long-term benefits, fostering growth and collaboration within the program.” Learn more. https://ow.ly/lk0M50Tjmay #StJudeResearch #Mentorship #STEMM

For many years, doctors believed that heart muscle damage caused by sickle cell disease was permanent. But, in a groundbreaking discovery, researchers from St. Jude and LeBonheur Children’s Hospital found that bone marrow transplantation can reverse myocardial fibrosis in sickle cell patients, marking the first time that heart muscle damage improved as a result of sickle cell treatment. Doctors have known for many years that individuals with sickle cell disease have a higher risk of developing cardiac complications than the rest of the population. In sickle cell disease, heart muscle can be continuously damaged over time causing a buildup of fibrosis. The study was led by Akshay Sharma, MBBS, St. Jude Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy. “When we looked at the heart with cardiac MRI, we saw a gradual and definitive improvement in the amount of fibrosis in the heart,” said Sharma. “We thought that the function of the heart would improve after transplantation, and it did - but what was surprising was that the amount of fibrosis in the heart also improved over time.” Cardiac MRI, the gold standard for analyzing the heart, made this research possible, providing hope for patients that heart health, and potentially other organ systems, can improve after sickle cell disease treatment. Learn more on St. Jude Progress. https://ow.ly/1VE450TjgiU #SickleCellAwarenessMonth #StJude #SickleCellDisease #CCAM

In the past 20 years, we've seen extraordinary advancements in leukemia diagnosis and therapy. The shift from phenotypic to genotypic analysis and the move from morphology to transcriptome and genome sequencing are revolutionizing patient care. Join us on September 12, 2024, at 12pm/1pm ET for an in-depth discussion led by the CEO of Munich Leukemia Laboratory, Prof. Dr. med. Dr. phil. Torsten Haferlach, MD, PhD, on transformative changes in leukemia care. Register here: https://ow.ly/nr0F50TgUgT

A new class of scholars took a giant step forward on the path to becoming scientific leaders and creative thinkers who can advance cures. The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences recently welcomed its latest class of students at the Convocation Ceremony. The new class includes 37 students from 14 different countries, including 10 students pursing a MS in Clinical Investigations, 11 pursuing a MS in Global Child Health, and 16 pursing a PhD in Biomedical Sciences. “As you step onto this campus you become part of a vibrant community dedicated to learning,” said Dean of the Graduate School Steven Varga, PhD. “The journey you are about to set off in isn’t just about the lectures and the textbooks and research. It’s about embracing curiosity, challenging status quo and nurturing a passion for knowledge that will shape the course of your lives.” Welcome to our newest graduate students!