Jun J. Yang

Jun J. Yang, PhD, is a Professor and Vice-Chair in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He holds an Endowed Chair in Pharmacogenomics and is affiliated with the Comprehensive Cancer Center and St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. His research focuses on understanding the genetic basis of inter-patient variability in anticancer drug responses, particularly in pediatric leukemia. Key areas include pharmacogenomics of anti-leukemia drug toxicities, genomics of drug sensitivity/resistance, and leveraging genetic insights to develop precision therapies.

Dr. Yang earned his PhD from Purdue University and has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2011. He leads the Yang Lab, which employs genomic and systems pharmacology approaches to decode leukemia heterogeneity. Notable achievements include identifying genetic polymorphisms in NUDT15 that predict thiopurine toxicity, leading to FDA label changes, and discovering biomarkers for drug response in T-cell ALL.

He has received prestigious awards, including the 2024 Mentor of the Year from St. Jude and the 2023 Waun Ki Hong Award. His work emphasizes global collaborations, particularly in studying diverse pediatric leukemia cohorts. Current projects include developing biomarker-informed clinical trials, understanding chemotherapy-induced liver toxicity mechanisms, and identifying genetic risk factors for leukemia susceptibility.

• Education: PhD, Purdue University (2006)
• Affiliations: Hematological Malignancies Program, St. Jude Postdoctoral Leadership Council
• Grants: NIH, V Foundation