Cheryl Lyn Walker | |
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Born | |
Spouse | Michael Walker |
Academic background | |
Education | BSc, molecular biology, 1977, University of Colorado Boulder PhD, molecular biology, 1984, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center MD, Baylor College of Medicine |
Thesis | The Effects of epigenetic manipulations on cellular phenotype (1984) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Baylor College of Medicine Texas A&M University MD Anderson Cancer Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill North Carolina State University National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences |
Cheryl Lyn Walker is an American molecular biologist.
Walker was born and raised in Oak Cliff of South Dallas,Texas. [1] Her father was an entrepreneur who opened the first Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant. [2] Upon graduating high school,she majored in molecular biology at the University of Colorado Boulder before earning her PhD in molecular biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She then enrolled at Baylor College of Medicine for her medical degree. [3]
Upon completing her medical degree,Walker joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,North Carolina State University,and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. [4] In 2009,she joined the faculty at the MD Anderson Cancer Center as the Ruth and Walter Sterling Professor of Carcinogenesis. [5] While serving in this role,she was the co-recipient of a Grand Opportunity grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for a two-year research program. [6]
Walker left MD Anderson in 2011 to become the director of the Texas A&M University Health Science Center (TAMHSC) Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT),where she was expected to establish a program in translational cancer research. [7] Following this,she was appointed to serve on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute [8] and elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [9] As the director,Walker brought the TAMHSC into the Gulf Coast Consortia for Quantitative Biomedical Sciences and established the Texas Screening Alliance for Cancer Therapeutics. She also founded a Field-to-Clinic initiative in disease prevention at the IBT and oversaw the development of two centers of research excellence. [10] Due to her success,Walker was named a 2015 "Women on the Move" award recipient by Texas Executive Women. [11]
Walker eventually left Texas A&M to become the director of the Center for Precision Environmental Health and a professor in the Departments of Molecular and Cellular Biology,Medicine,and Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. [12] Upon joining the faculty,she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. [13] Following this,she was awarded an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute for her project "A New Target for Chromatin Remodeler Defects in Cancer." [14] In 2019,Walker was the recipient of the Roy O. Greep Award for Outstanding Research from the Endocrine Society. [15]
In 1998,Walker was among the first to show that tumor suppressor genes were the target for chemical carcinogens in the environment. [16] Due to this discovery,she "created an animal model for the most frequent gynecologic tumor of women,elucidating pathways by which environmental exposures reprogram the epigenome and discovering a new linkage between the epigenome and the cytoskeleton." [13] Walker also developed a groundbreaking animal model for uterine leiomyoma/fibroids. [17]
Walker and her husband Michael have two children together. [2]
Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston,Texas,within the Texas Medical Center,the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components:the School of Medicine,the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences;the School of Health Professions,and the National School of Tropical Medicine.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is a public academic health science center in Dallas,Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees,more than 3,000 full-time faculty,and nearly 4 million outpatient visits per year,UT Southwestern is the largest medical school in the University of Texas System and state of Texas.
The Texas A&M Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT),a component of Texas A&M Health,and The Texas A&M University System,is located in the world's largest medical center,the Texas Medical Center,in Houston,Texas. The institute provides a bridge between Texas A&M University System scientists and other institutions' researchers working in the Texas Medical Center and the biomedical and biotechnology research community in Houston. It emphasizes collaboration between member scientists and others working in all the fields of the biosciences and biotechnology. IBT encourages its scientists to transfer discoveries made in their laboratories to the clinic and marketplace.
William R. "Bill" Brinkley,was an American cellular biologist and scientific advocate and served as a Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. Brinkley was recognized particularly for contributing to discovery of the attachment of chromosomes to the mitotic spindle apparatus.
Margaret L. Kripke is an American immunologist. She is an expert in photoimmunology and the immunology of skin cancers. She earned a BS and MS in bacteriology,and a Ph.D in immunology,at the University of California at Berkeley.
Huda Yahya Zoghbi,born Huda El-Hibri,is a Lebanese-born American geneticist,and a professor at the Departments of Molecular and Human Genetics,Neuroscience and Neurology at the Baylor College of Medicine. She is the director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute. She became the editor of the Annual Review of Neuroscience as of 2018.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS),is a joint venture of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. It offers Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in many areas of study,and a M.D./Ph.D. program in collaboration with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston,and it is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools through both its parent institutions,UTHealth and MD Anderson. It is located in the heart of the Texas Medical Center.
Margaret (“Peggy”) A. Goodell is an American scientist working in the field of stem cell research. Goodell is Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine,Director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (STaR) Center,and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She is best known for her discovery of a novel method to isolate adult stem cells.
Mary K. Estes is an American virologist who is professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston,Texas. Her courses include microbiology,and virology;she is also the co-director of the Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine Graduate Program at Baylor College of Medicine. There are two main viruses that her research is based on,rotaviruses and noroviruses. The main goal of her research are to study how the viral proteins interact with the receptors of the intestinal cells;they are also looking into different ways to deliver virus-like particles to prevent these viruses from causing infections. Estes has achieved many awards and recognition in her time as a virologist. She is also a member of multiple foundations and professional societies.
Kevin M. Slawin is an American physician and the founder of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals and the Vanguard Urologic Institute at Memorial Hermann Medical Group. He was also the Director of Urology at Memorial Hermann Hospital. Slawin specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of urologic cancers and robotic surgery. He is also possesses patents related to the advancement of prostate cancer diagnosis,staging and treatment and to the cellular immunotherapy of cancer.
Christopher Ian Amos is an American genetic epidemiologist and the director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research at Baylor College of Medicine,where he is also the associate director for quantitative science at the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is known for his research on the genetic basis of certain types of human cancer.
Professor Bissan Al-Lazikani PhD FRSB MBCS is a data scientist and drug discoverer. She applies computational techniques to help solve critical bottlenecks in cancer drug discovery and development. Since 2021 she has been professor of genomic medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Sharmila Anandasabapathy is a Sri Lankan-American physician and researcher in the field of gastrointestinal cancer. She is a professor of medicine in gastroenterology and serves as director of Baylor Global Health and vice president at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Darlene Dixon is an American veterinary scientist and toxicologic pathologist researching the pathogenesis/carcinogenesis of tumors affecting the reproductive tract of rodents and humans and assessing the role of environmental and endogenous hormonal factors in the growth of these tumors. She is a senior investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Carrie L. Byington is a Mexican–American clinician and pediatric infectious disease specialist. In 2016,she became the first Hispanic woman to serve as Dean of a United States medical school upon her appointment at the Texas A&M University.
Marcia G. Ory is an American gerontologist with a background in Social Sciences,Public Health and Aging. She is a Regents and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. Ory also serves as the director of the Texas A&M Board of Regents Center for Population Health and Aging.
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