Our Bureau
Memphis, TN
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital recently announced the name of M. Madan Babu, PhD, FRS, as the institution’s first Chief Data Scientist, Senior Vice President for Data Science, and leader of the newly formed Office of Data Science. This $195 million research enterprise will have 115 new positions.
In his new role, Babu will bring new, advanced computing technologies and data science approaches to biomedical research. He will lead and facilitate the integration of biological and biomedical data, foster a data science research culture, and build international collaborations.
“St. Jude is a unique place and I am honored to lead this initiative,” Babu said. “With our intellectual ecosystem of talented clinical, experimental and data scientists united under the same mission, there’s no better place than St. Jude to build a data science enterprise of this magnitude.”
Babu joined St. Jude in the Structural Biology department in 2020, following a 14-year tenure as a program leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He is a recipient of the Gold Medal from the European Molecular Biology Organization and a recent inductee of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of London.
Babu earned his PhD in computational genomics from Cambridge University and his undergraduate degree from Anna University, Chennai, India. Babu completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
James R. Downing, MD, president and CEO of St. Jude, said “Under the leadership of Dr. Babu, a globally recognized expert in this field, our Office of Data Science will strengthen data-sharing between the lab and the clinic, accelerating our progress in finding cures and developing treatments for children with catastrophic diseases.”
“Dr. Babu is a pioneer in developing and applying data science-based approaches to reveal fundamental principles of biological systems,” said J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD, executive vice president and scientific director.
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.
