Suzanne J. Baker, Ph.D. Associate Director of Basic Research, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center
Suzanne J. Baker, Ph.D. is the Associate Director for Basic Research and Co-Leader of the Neurobiology and Brain Tumor Program at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center. She also serves as Associate Dean of the PhD program in the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She received her Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology and Human Genetics from The Johns Hopkins University, where she trained with Dr. Bert Vogelstein. After postdoctoral training with Dr. Tom Curran at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, she joined the faculty at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where she holds the Endowed Chair in Brain Tumor Research.
Dr. Baker is recognized for her work on the molecular etiology of cancer and in vivo functional studies. She was the first to identify TP53 mutations in human cancer. Focusing on pediatric gliomas, she co-discovered the first histone mutations in human cancer, illuminating critical connections between development, epigenetics and cancer. Ongoing work in her laboratory is focused on understanding the underlying molecular, cellular, genetic and developmental mechanisms driving high-grade gliomas.