St. Jude scientist Charles Mullighan elected to the Royal Society of London

Prolific leukemia researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital named a Fellow of the elite 364-year-old British scientific organization

2025-05-20

(Press-News.org) St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital leukemia researcher Charles G. Mullighan, MBBS (Hons), MSc, MD, senior deputy director of the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.

Mullighan was selected to join the Royal Society for his trailblazing contributions to genomic research, which have advanced the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of acute leukemia, notably childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). His studies have redefined the disease by identifying novel subtypes, uncovering critical genomic drivers, and advancing precision medicine approaches.

In addition to his leadership role in the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center, Mullighan is also divisional director for research in the Department of Pathology, director of the Center of Excellence for Leukemia Studies and the William E. Evans Endowed Chair.

“I am deeply honored by this recognition of our contribution to cancer research and grateful to the many researchers and mentors who have contributed to this work,” Mullighan said. “The advances we have made were only possible due to the substantial support for research and collaborative environment at St. Jude.”

“The Royal Society and St. Jude share a belief that science should benefit humanity, and that’s exactly why Dr. Mullighan so richly deserves this recognition,” said James R. Downing, MD, president and CEO of St. Jude. “Since he joined St. Jude more than 20 years ago, Dr. Mullighan’s quest to advance the understanding and treatment of childhood leukemia has saved and improved the lives of countless children around the world.”

“It is with great pleasure that I welcome the latest cohort of outstanding researchers into the Fellowship of the Royal Society,” said Sir Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society. “Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavor, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. From tackling global health challenges to reimagining what AI can do for humanity, their work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research and innovation.”

Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is an independent scientific academy of the U.K. and the British Commonwealth of nations. Its Fellows and foreign members have included many of the world’s most eminent scientists and technologists, representing a range of personalities, from Sir Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin to Dorothy Hodgkin and St. Jude scientists Robert Webster and Madan Babu. Mullighan’s fellow U.S.-based members include researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Google DeepMind, Johns Hopkins University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Princeton University, Harvard University, Stanford University and the National Institutes of Health.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and cures childhood cancer, sickle cell disease, and other life-threatening disorders. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to 80% since the hospital opened more than 60 years ago. St. Jude shares the breakthroughs it makes to help doctors and researchers at local hospitals and cancer centers around the world improve the quality of treatment and care for even more children. To learn more, visit stjude.org, read St. Jude Progress, a digital magazine, and follow St. Jude on social media at @stjuderesearch.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

1.5°C Paris Climate Agreement target too high for polar ice sheets and sea level rise

2025-05-20

Efforts to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C under the Paris Climate Agreement may not go far enough to save the world’s ice sheets, according to a new study. Research led by Durham University, UK, suggests the target should instead be closer to 1°C to avoid significant losses from the polar ice sheets and prevent a further acceleration in sea level rise. The team reviewed a wealth of evidence to examine the effect that the 1.5°C target would have on the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, which together store enough ice to raise global sea levels by almost 65 metres. The mass of ice lost from these ice ...

Scientists discover potential new targets for Alzheimer’s drugs

2025-05-20

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- By combining information from many large datasets, MIT researchers have identified several new potential targets for treating or preventing Alzheimer’s disease. The study revealed genes and cellular pathways that haven’t been linked to Alzheimer’s before, including one involved in DNA repair. Identifying new drug targets is critical because many of the Alzheimer’s drugs that have been developed to this point haven’t been as successful as hoped. Working with researchers at Harvard Medical School, the team used data from humans and fruit flies to identify cellular pathways linked to neurodegeneration. ...

Scientists develop new treatment with potential to tackle commonest form of childhood cancer

2025-05-20

A combination of two drugs could improve outcomes and reduce the need for toxic chemotherapy for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL), the commonest cancer in childhood and one that can be particularly difficult to treat in older patients, according to Cambridge scientists. Although the research has so far only been conducted in cell lines and mice, the team is seeking funding to begin clinical trials in patients shortly. More than 500 people a year in the UK are diagnosed with B-ALL, many of whom are children, where it makes up 40% of all ...

Technique rapidly measures cells’ density, reflecting health and developmental state

2025-05-20

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Measuring the density of a cell can reveal a great deal about the cell’s state. As cells proliferate, differentiate, or undergo cell death, they may gain or lose water and other molecules, which is revealed by changes in density. Tracking these tiny changes in cells’ physical state is difficult to do at a large scale, especially with single-cell resolution, but a team of MIT researchers has now found a way to measure cell density quickly and accurately — measuring up to 30,000 cells in a single hour. The researchers also showed that density ...

Mask users can now breathe easy on two counts

2025-05-20

Tokyo, Japan—The COVID-19 pandemic increased public awareness of the importance of mask use for personal protection. However, when the mesh size of mask fabrics is small enough to capture viruses, which are usually around one hundred nanometers in size, the fabric typically also restricts air flow, resulting in user discomfort. But now, researchers from Japan have found a way to avoid this. In a study published this month in Materials Advances, researchers from the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo have overcome this bottleneck and developed a filter capable of capturing nanoparticles such ...

Aging reduces CAR-T cell effectiveness by impairing metabolism, study shows

2025-05-20

As people age, their immune systems become less efficient, posing a challenge for cancer therapies that rely on harnessing immune cells. In a new study published in Nature Cancer, researchers from the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), show that this age-related immune decline has a measurable impact on CAR-T cell therapy, one of the most advanced forms of cancer immunotherapy. CAR-T ...

Why are patients with mitochondrial disease more susceptible to infections? New JAX study finds the answer

2025-05-20

Patients with rare mitochondrial diseases already face a host of serious health issues, from muscle weakness to neurological problems and heart conditions. But one of their most life-threatening challenges has remained a mystery—why are they so vulnerable to severe infections? Now, scientists at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) may have finally pinpointed why. Their new study, published in Nature Communications, shows that damaged mitochondria put the immune system in a constant state of alert, leading to dangerous overreactions when patients encounter bacteria. This excessive immune ...

National Heart Centre Singapore implements cutting-edge artificial intelligence in nationwide project for rapid coronary artery disease prediction

2025-05-20

SENSE, a nationwide artificial intelligence (AI) initiative to interpret cardiac imaging scans in minutes, aiding early detection and prediction of coronary artery disease. NHCS CVS.AI Research Laboratory, a new purpose-built and dedicated facility with enhanced infrastructure to advance and drive novel AI technology in cardiac imaging. Singapore, 20 May 2025 – The National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) announces a major advancement in cardiac care research with the implementation of SENSE (Singapore hEart lesioN analySEr), a nationwide AI initiative that reduces the time taken to analyse cardiac scans, from hours to minutes. This breakthrough system will transform the ...

How molecules can ‘remember’ and contribute to memory and learning

2025-05-20

Researchers have discovered how an ion channel in the brain’s neurons has a kind of ‘molecular memory’, which contributes to the formation and preservation of lifelong memories. The researchers have identified a specific part of the ion channel at which new drugs for certain genetic diseases could be targeted. The study, led from Linköping University in Sweden, has been published in Nature Communications. One of the brain’s superpowers is its ability to learn from past experiences and form memories. These vital processes depend on the reshaping of connections between neurons in the brain. ...

New research links global climate patterns to wildfires in Los Angeles

2025-05-20

As wildfires continue to ravage regions from Los Angeles to South Korea, a new study featured on the cover of the Issue 7, 2025 of Advances in Atmospheric Sciences sheds light on the large-scale climate patterns influencing these devastating global extreme events. The research, led by Professor Young-Min Yang from Jeonbuk National University, reveals how tropical climate phenomena like the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) can trigger dry, windy conditions that exacerbate wildfires in mid-latitude regions, including the western U.S. and East Asia. Wildfire prediction remains a major challenge due to rapidly changing weather conditions ...

St. Jude scientist Charles Mullighan elected to the Royal Society of London

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: