Cheryl Lyn Walker | |
---|---|
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 the State of Texas.
The Texas A&M University School of Dentistry,located in Dallas,Texas,is the dental school of Texas A&M University and is a component of Texas A&M Health. It has had several name changes since its founding in 1905,as the State Dental College.
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.
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 Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research,established by National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) and named in honor of Albert Szent-Györgyi,Nobel laureate and co-founder of NFCR,has been awarded annually since 2006 to outstanding researchers whose scientific achievements have expanded the understanding of cancer and whose vision has moved cancer research in new directions. The Szent-Györgyi Prize honors researchers whose discoveries have made possible new approaches to preventing,diagnosing and/or treating cancer. The Prize recipient is honored at a formal dinner and award ceremony and receives a $25,000 cash prize. In addition,the recipient leads the next "Szent-Györgyi Prize Committee" as honorary chairman.
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. Dr. 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.
Eleanor Josephine Macdonald was a pioneer American cancer epidemiologist and cancer researcher influenced and mentored by Edwin Bidwell Wilson and Shields Warren. One of the earliest proponents of the idea that cancer was a preventable disease. She established the first cancer registry in the United States in Connecticut.
Guillermina 'Gigi' Lozano is an American geneticist. She is a professor at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Lozano is recognised for her studies of the p53 tumour suppressor pathway,characterising the protein as a regulator of gene expression.
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.
Stephanie S. Watowich is an American immunologist. Watowich is the deputy chair of the Department of Immunology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston,TX. She is a professor within the department as well and serves as the co-director of the Center for Inflammation and Cancer at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Watowich’s research has focused on transcriptional control of innate immunity,with specific interest in the actions of the cytokine-activated STAT transcriptional regulators.
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.
Helen Margaret Piwnica-Worms is an American cell-cycle researcher. Since 2013,she has served as vice provost of science at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and professor in MD Anderson's Department of Cancer Biology.
Cheryl Lynn Willman is an American cancer researcher and executive director of Mayo Clinic Cancer Programs at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center.