How to apply for graduate schools and postdocs in the US:How to apply for graduate schools and postdocs in the US:Perspective from St. Jude ChildrenPerspective from St. Jude Children’’s Research Hospitals Research Hospital

Jian Zuo, PhDJian Zuo, PhDMemberMember

Department of Developmental NeurobiologyDepartment of Developmental NeurobiologyCoCo--Director of Neuroscience TrackDirector of Neuroscience Track

Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences (IBS) Graduate ProgramInterdisciplinary Biological Sciences (IBS) Graduate ProgramSt. Jude ChildrenSt. Jude Children’’s Research Hospitals Research Hospital

Acknowledgement• Brandon Cox, PhD• Jennifer Dearman• Jie Fang, PhD• Bryan Kuo, PhD• Luigi Iconaru, PhD• Zhiyong Liu• Marcia Mellado-Lagarde,

PhD• Terry Netzel, II• Thomas Owen• Anna Perez• Katie Steigelman• Bradley Walters, PhD• Brandon Walters, PhD• Tetsuji Yamashita, PhD• Lingli Zhang

Laboratory members

Collaborators at St. Jude

Financial support• ALSAC •ONR (N000140911014)• NIH (R01 DC06174,

R21 DC008800, F32 DC010310, F31 DC009393)

• The Hartwell Foundation• Sir Henry Wellcome

Postdoctoral Fellowship• National Organization

for Hearing Research (NOHR)

Guillermo Oliver, PhDMartine Roussel, PhD

Suzanne Baker, PhD

Richard Kriwacki, PhDTaosheng Chen, PhDPrevious lab members

• Thomas Weber, PhD• Yiling Yu

1. Danny Thomas/ALSAC Pavilion2. Patient Care Center (PCC)3. Richard C. Shadyac ALSAC Tower

7. 505 Building/Human Resources/Security8. Tamer-Rashid Building (ALSAC NEO)9. Barry-Longinotti Building

4. Danny Thomas Research Center (DTRC)5. Integrated Research Center (IRC)6. St. Jude Parking Garage

10. North Parkway Parking Garage11. Good Manufacturing Practices Facility (GMP)12. Chili’s Care Center (CCC)

St. Jude Aerial View

Danny Thomas (1912‐1991), founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Awards and Prizes

• Peter Doherty, PhD, Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine, 1996;

• 5 Academic Members;• 3 Howard Hughes Investigators;• #1 Children’s Hospital for Cancer Care in the US (ranked by

U.S. News and World Report Magazine in 2010)

1,623 faculty in US, Canada, Western Europe and Israel

Scientific Community at St. Jude

• 100 basic science and 90 clinical faculty

• 280 postdoctoral fellows

• 60 clinical fellows

• 70 PhD graduate students

• Summer Interns ~ 50 in the Pediatric Oncology

Education program~ 10 from Rhodes College

ALL: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, affects 4,000 cases per yr in the US, 2/3 are children, the most common childhood cancer. Now 94% cure rate has been reached for 10-yr cancer free, by St. Jude researchers. Dr. Ching-Hon Pui, a native Taiwanese, is the leader of ALL program at St. Jude and he is also the leader of St. Jude’s China outreach program.

Brain Tumors and Cancer Stem Cells

• Gibson P, et al, Gilbertson RJ. Subtypes of medulloblastoma have distinct developmental origins. Nature 2010 (in press).

• Johnson RA, Wright KD, et al, Gilbertson RJ. Cross-species genomics matches driver mutations and cell compartments to model ependymoma. Nature 466: 632–636, 2010.

• Zhu L, et al, Gilbertson RJ. Prominin 1 marks intestinal stem cells that are susceptible to neoplastic transformation. Nature 457:603-7, 2009.

• Calabrese C, Poppleton H, Kocak M, Hogg TL, Fuller C, Hamner B, Oh EY, Gaber W, Finklestein D, Allen M, Frank A, Bayazitov IT, Zakharenko SS, Gajjar A, Davidoff A, Gilbertson RJ. A Perivascular niche for brain tumor stem cells. Cancer Cell 11:69-82, 2007.

• Taylor MD, Poppleton H, Fuller C, Su X, Liu Y, Jensen P, Magdelano S, Dalton J, Board J, MacDonald T, Rutka J, Guha A, Gajjar A, Curran T, Gilbertson RJ. Radial Glia cells are candidate stem cells of ependymoma. Cancer Cell 8:323-335, 2005.

Richard J. Gilbertson, MD, PhDMember, St. Jude FacultyDirector, Molecular Clinical Trials CoreCo-Leader, Neurobiology & Brain Tumor Program

Ubiquitin and Cancer

• Scott DC, Monda JK, Grace CR, Duda DM, Kriwacki RW, Kurz T, Schulman BA. A Dual E3 mechanism for Rub1 ligation to Cdc53. Mol Cell 39(5): 784-796, 2010.

• Wang J, Dye BT, Rajashankar KR, Kurinov I, Schulman BA. Insights into Anaphase Promoting Complex TPR subdomain assembly from a CDC26-APC6 structure. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 16: 987-989, 2009.

• Duda DM, Borg LA, Scott DC, Hunt HW, Hammel M, Schulman BA. Structural Insights into NEDD8 Activation of Cullin-RING Ligases: Conformational Control of Conjugation.Cell 134: 995-1006, 2008.

• Walden H, Podgorski MS, Schulman BA. Insights into the ubiquitin transfer cascade from the structure of the activating enzyme for NEDD8. Nature 422: 330-334, 2003.

Brenda A. Schulman, PhDMember, St. Jude FacultyInvestigator, Howard Hughes Medical InstituteCo-Director, Molecular Oncology Program

Retinal Development and Retinoblastoma

• Ajioka I, Martins R, Bayazitov I, Johnson D, Frase S, Donovan SL, Boyd K. Zakharenko SS, Dyer MA. Differentiated horizontal interneurons clonally expand to form metastatic retinoblastoma in mice. Cell 131(2):378-90, 2007. PMCID: PMC2203617

• Laurie N, Donovan S, Gray J, Fuller C, Johnson D, Wilson M, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Marine J-C, Jochemsen AG, Mendrysa S, Dyer MA. Inactivation the p53 pathway in retinoblastoma. Nature 444:61-66, 2006.

• Cicero SA, Johnson D, Reyntjens S, Frase S, Connell S, Chow LM, Baker SJ, Sorrentino BP, Dyer MA. Cells previously identified as retinal stem cells are pigmented ciliary epithelial cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA Apr 21;106(16):6685-90, 2009. Epub 2009 Apr 3.

• Martins RAP, Zindy F, Donovan S, Zhang J, Pounds S, Knoepfler PS, Eisenman RN, Roussel M, Dyer MA. N-myc coordinates retinal growth with eye size during mouse development. Genes and Development 15;22(2):179-193, 2008. PMCID: PMC2192753

Member, St. Jude FacultyCo-Leader, Developmental Therapeutics for Solid Malignancies ProgramInvestigator (Early Career), Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Michael A. Dyer, PhD

Genome and Leukemia• Mullighan CG, Miller CB, Radtke I, Philips LA,

Dalton J, Ma J, White D, Hughes TP, Le Beau MM, Pui, C-H, Relling MV, Shurtleff SA, Downing JR. BCR-ABL1 lymphoblastic leukemia is characterized by the deletion of Ikaros. Nature453(7191):110-4, 2008

• Mullighan CG, Goorha S, Radtke I, Miller CB, Coustan-Smith E, Dalton JD, Girtman K, Mathew S, Ma J, Pounds SB, Su X, Pui CH, Relling MV, Evans WE, Shurtleff S, Downing JR. Genome wide analysis of genetic alterations in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nature 446:758-64, 2007

• Mullighan CG, Phillips LA, Su X, Ma J, Miller CB, Shurtleff SA, Downing JR. Genomic analysis of the clonal origins of relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Science 322(5906):1377-80, 2008

• Radtke I, Mullighan CG, Ishii M, Su X, Cheng J, Ma J, Ganti R, Cai Z, Goorha S, Pounds SB, Cao X, Obert C, Armstrong J, Zhang J, Song G, Ribeiro RC, Rubnitz JE, Raimondi SC, Shurtleff SA, Downing JR. Genomic analysis reveals few genetic alterations in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Aug 4;106(31):12944-9, 2009.

James R. Downing, MDMember, St. Jude FacultyScientific Director, St. Jude Children's Research HospitalAssociate Director of Basic Research, Cancer CenterCo-Leader, Hematological Malignancies ProgramDirector, Molecular Pathology Laboratory

Chemical Approaches to Cancers and Diseases

• Mayer, M.; Lang, P. T.; Gerber, S.; Madrid, P. B.; Gomez-Pinto, I.; Guy, R. K.; James, T. L. “Synthesis and Testing of a Focused Phenothiazine Library for Binding to HIV-1 TAR RNA,” Chem. Biol. 13(9): 993-1000, 2006.

• Guiguemde WA, Shelat AA, Bouck D, Duffy S, Crowther GJ, Davis PH, Smithson DC, Connelly M, Clark J, Zhu F, Jiménez-Díaz MB, Martinez MS, Wilson EB, Tripathi AK, Gut J, Sharlow ER, Bathurst I, El Mazouni F, Fowble JW, Forquer I, McGinley PL, Castro S, Angulo-Barturen I, Ferrer S, Rosenthal PJ, Derisi JL, Sullivan DJ, Lazo JS, Roos DS, Riscoe MK, Phillips MA, Rathod PK, Van Voorhis WC, Avery VM, Guy RK. Chemical genetics of Plasmodium falciparum. Nature465(7296):311-5, 2010.

• Shelat AA, Guy RK. Scaffold composition and biological relevance of screening libraries. Nat Chem Biol. 3(8):442-6, 2007.

• Margolis RN, Moore DD, Willson TM, Guy RK.Chemical approaches to nuclear receptors in metabolism. Sci Signal. 2(82):mr5, 2009.

R. Kiplin Guy, PhDMember, St. Jude FacultyChair, Chemical Biology & Therapeutics

T Cell Function

• Wang H, Matsuzawa A, Brown S, Zhou J-R, Guy CS, Tseng P-H, Forbes K, Nicholson TP, Sheppard PW, Haecker H, Karin M, Vignali DAA. Analysis of non-degradative protein ubiquitylation with a monoclonal antibody specific for lysine 63-linked polyubiquitin. PNAS105:20197-20202, 2008.

• Holst J, Wang H, Durick Eder K, Workman CJ, Boyd K, Baquet Z, Singh H, Forbes K, Chruscinski A, Smeyne R, van Oers NSC, Utz PJ, Vignali DAA. T cell receptor:CD3 ITAM-mediated scalable signaling ensures effective negative selection and prevents autoimmunity. Nature Immunology 9:658-666, 2008.

• Collison LW, Workman CJ, Kuo TK, Boyd K, Wang Y, Vignali K, Cross R, Sehy D, Blumberg RS, Vignali DAA. The inhibitory cytokine IL-35 contributes to regulatory T cell function. Nature 450: 566-569, 2007.

• Vallabhapurapu S, Matsuzawa A, Zhang WZ, Tseng P-H, Keats JJ, Wang H, Vignali DAA, Bergsagel PL, Karin M. TRAF2 and TRAF3 carry out non-redundant and complementary functions to activate NIK-dependent alternative NF-κB signaling. Nature Immunology 9:1364-1370, 2008.

• Matsuzawa A, Tseng P-H, Vallabhapurapu S, Luo J-L, Zhang W, Wang H, Vignali DAA, Gallagher E, Karin K. Essential cytoplasmic translocation of a cytokine receptor-assembled signaling complex. Science 321:663-8, 2008.

Dario A. A. Vignali, PhDMember, St. Jude FacultyVice Chair, Immunology

Cell Death

• Sanjuan MA, Dillon C, Tait SWG, Moshiach S, Dorsey F, Connell S, Komatsu M, Tanaka K, Cleveland JL, Withoff S, Green DR. Toll-like receptor signaling in macrophages links the autophagy pathway to phagocytosis. Nature 450, 1253-1257, 2007.

• Colell A, Ricci JE, Tait S, Milasta S, Maurer U, Bouchier-Hayes L, Fitzgerald P, Guio-Carrion A, Waterhouse NJ, Li CW, Barbry P, Newmeyer DD, Beere HM, Green DR. GAPDH and autophagy protect cells from caspase-independent cell death. Cell 129, 983-997, 2007.

• Moldoveanu T, Gehring K, Green DR. Concerted multi-pronged attack by calpastatin to occlude the catalytic cleft of heterodimeric calpains. Nature456(7220):404-8, 2008.

• Tait SW, Parsons MJ, Llambi F, Bouchier-Hayes L, Connell S, Muñoz-Pinedo C, Green DR.Resistance to caspase-independent cell death requires persistence of intact mitochondria. Dev Cell 18(5):802-13, 2010

Douglas R. Green, PhDMember, St. Jude FacultyChair, ImmunologyPeter C. Doherty Endowed Chair of Immunology

Cell Cycle and Cancer

• Gromley A, Churchman ML, Zindy F, Sherr CJ. Transient expression of the Arf tumor suppressor during male germ cell and eye development in Arf-Cre reporter mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106: 6285-6290, 2009.

• Williams RT, den Besten W, Sherr CJ. Cytokine-dependent imatinib resistance in mouse BCR-ABL(+), Arf-null lymphoblastic leukemia. Genes Dev 21: 2283-2287, 2007.

• Sherr CJ. Divorcing ARF and p53: an unsettled case. Nat Rev Cancer 6: 663-673, 2006.

• Williams RT, Roussel MF, Sherr CJ. Arfgene loss enhances oncogenicity and limits imatinib response in mouse models of Bcr-Abl-induced acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 103: 6688-6693, 2006.

• Sherr CJ. Review: Principles of Tumor Suppression. Cell (30th Anniversary Issue) 116: 235-246, 2004.

Charles J. Sherr, MD, PhDMember, St. Jude FacultyCo-Chair, Genetics & Tumor Cell BiologyInvestigator, Howard Hughes Medical InstituteCo-Director, Molecular Oncology ProgramHerrick Foundation Chair

Drosophila Models of Neurodegenerative Diseases• Nedelsky NB, Pennuto M, Smith RB, Palazzolo I,

Nie Z, Moore J, Neale G and Taylor JP. Native functions of the androgen receptor are essential to pathogenesis in a Drosophila model of spinobulbar muscular atrophy Neuron 67(6): 936-952, 2010.

• Pandey UB, Nie ZP, Batlevi Y, McCray BA, Ritson GP, Schwartz SL, DiProspero N, Knight M, Schuldiner O, Padmanabhan R, Hild M, Berry D, Garza D, Hubbert CC, Yao TP, Baehrecke EH, Taylor JP. HDAC6 rescues neurodegeneration and provides an essential link between autophagy and the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Nature 447, 859-863, 2007.

• Nedelsky NB, Pennuto M, Smith RB, Palazzolo I, Nie Z, Moore J, Neale G and Taylor JP. Native functions of the androgen receptor are essential to pathogenesis in a Drosophila model of spinobulbar muscular atrophy Neuron 67(6): 936-952, 2010.

• Todd PK, Oh SY, Krans A, Pandey U, DiProspero N, Min KT, Taylor JP, and Paulson HL. Histone deacetylases suppress CGG repeat-induced neurodegeneration via transcriptional silencing in models of Fragile X Tremor Ataxia Syndrome. PLoS Genetics In press.

J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhDAssociate Member, St. Jude Faculty

2006 Financial Report

• Total Revenues– ALSAC– Net Patient Services– Research Grants– Net Investment

• Total Expenses– Patient Care– Research– Community Services– Administrative

• $806M– $504M– $71M– $66M– $156M$605M– $210M– $193M– $54M– $146M

Pediatric Cancer Genome Project

• Collaboration with Washington University, St. Louis• Completely sequence the whole genome of pediatric tumors

and compare to normal tissues– Next three years

• 200 Brain tumors• 200 Leukemias• 200 Solid Tumors

• Identify common mutations• Evaluate transforming properties of mutated proteins in vitro

and in vivo • Identify inhibitors for use as potential novel therapies

Capacity: 50,000 data points/day

Chemical Biology and TherapeuticsThe only program of its type for children

Lab Discovery New Drug

Capacity: 1 million compounds

Research Areas at St.Jude

View 2010 Scientific Report at www.stjude.org/sci-rpt

• Genomics• Immunology• Infectious Diseases• Molecular Genetics• Molecular Pharmacology• Molecular Therapeutics• Pathology• Pharmaceutical Sciences• Pharmacogenetics• Proteomics• Radiological Sciences• Signal Transduction• Structural Biology

• Apoptosis• Bioinformatics• Biostatistics• Cancer Biology• Cell Biology • Cell Cycle Regulation• Chemical Biology and Therapeutics• Computational Biology• Dev. Biology• Dev. Neurobiology• Epidemiology

and Cancer Control• Hematology• Gene Therapy

Shared Research Resourcesat St. Jude

• Hartwell Center

• Animal Resources Center

• Transgenic/Gene Knockout Facility

• Flow Cytometry & Cell Sorting

• Molecular Clinical Trials

• Cellular Microinjection

• Cytogenetics

• Protein Production

• High-Throughput

Screening Facility

• Tissue Repository

• Cell and Tissue Imaging

• Vector Development and Production

• Pharmacokinetics

• Biostatistics

• GMP

• Information Technology

• Technology Licensing

• Biomedical Engineering

• Biomedical Communications

• Scientific Editing

• Laboratory Services

• Biomedical Library

Why Come to St. Jude?

• High-quality science• Translational research• Interactive collaborative research environment• Extensive research facilities• Funding to do your work • Strong faculty & support staff• Close-knit postdoctoral community

Benefits at St Jude for Postdocs

• Competitive Salary (starting at $40,564)

• 403B Retirement Plan with Institutional contributions

• $2,100 Annual Professional Development Allowance

• $2,500 Sign-on Bonus

• Lap-Top Computer

• NIH student Loan Repayment Plan

• Free Gym Membership

• Insurance Plans (Health, Dental, Vision, Life)

• Free On Campus Parking

Postdoctoral Fellow Funding

• Not required to bring own money

• Faculty have one institutional postdoctoral fellowship

• Faculty encouraged to gain more funding through external grants or awarded fellowships

• Postdoctoral fellowships are initially awarded for 2 years and are renewable annually for up to 3 additional years.

• Labs are well equipped and well funded

Postdoctoral Opportunities

− Continuing Education − Ethics Training− Career Development Seminars− Clinical Shadowing Program

− Teaching/Mentoring opportunities− Summer students are often mentored by post docs− Teaching opportunities are available at

Rhodes College− Active Postdoc Council

− Forum for enhancement of post doc life at St. Jude− Annual postdoctoral appreciation events− Postdoc socials

− Enhance social network and opportunitiesfor collaboration

− Monthly Newsletter - SCRAPS− Extensive use of intranet to help with research

needs (advice, protocols or reagents)− Members of Institutional Committees

Postdoc Council members

Why Choose Memphis?• Low cost of living

– Postdocs often buy houses

• Easy to get around– Most postdocs live within

10 minutes of St. Jude

• Lots of things to do– Museums (e.g. Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium, National Civil Rights

Museum and the Children’s Museum of Memphis)– World-class zoo (housing 2 giant pandas)– Historic Beale Street where the blues were born– The Orpheum Theater (Broadway shows), Ballet Memphis, Opera Memphis,

Memphis Symphony– Graceland (former home of Elvis Presley)– Sports (NBA Grizzlies, U of M Tigers, AAA Redbirds)

Chinese Postdocs at St. Jude Who are now Faculty

1. Rensheng Luo: University of Missouri-St. Louis, Research Assistant Professor

2. Wu Xu: University of Louisiana at Lafayette Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

3. Qing Cheng: IGSP Center for Applied Genomics & Technology (CAGT)Assistant Professor

4. Yong Tian: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biophysics , Professor

5. Haotian Zhao: Sanford School of Medicine, The University of South Dakota, Assistant Professor

6. Guangwei Liu: State Key Laboratory of Biomembrane and Membrane Biotechnology , Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Associate Professor

7. Jiangang Gao: Shandong University, Vice Dean of College of Life Sciences, Director of Institute of Embryology, Professor.

Graduate Programs at St. Jude

• Univ. Tennessee/St. Jude Joint Program: Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences (IBS)

• Five tracks:NeuroscienceCancer and Developmental BiologyOthers

• Curriculum:Core courses in the first two years4-6 lab rotations in the first yearCandidacy exams at the end of 2nd yearThesis defenseSeminarsWork-in-progress presentations

• Stipend: ~$22K/yr plus health insurance

Admission for non-US students

• GRE: 1,300 or above; 3.5-4.5 analytical• GPA: 3.5 or above; ranking in the class; quality of school• Personal statement: love of science; excellent achievements;

experience; • Letters of recommendations: specifics• Interview: phone or webnar or face-to-face• Transcript and score verifications