{"entity":{"id":"james-r-downing","kind":"person","name":"James R. Downing","aka":[],"tldr":"Hematopathologist and cancer genomics pioneer who has led St. Jude Children's Research Hospital since 2014.","summary":"James R. Downing, MD, is President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, a role he has held since July 2014. A hematopathologist, he previously served as St. Jude's Scientific Director and co-led the St. Jude-Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, which mapped the genomic landscape of childhood leukemias and solid tumours. Under his leadership St. Jude has expanded its research capacity and its global paediatric cancer programmes.","asOf":"2026-09-10","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_R._Downing","links":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Downing+JR%5BAuthor%5D"}],"tags":["leadership","clinician-scientist","paediatric oncology","leukemia"],"related":[],"cancers":["all-leukemia","aml"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["st-jude"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"President and Chief Executive Officer","institutionId":"st-jude","specialisms":["Paediatric leukemia genomics","Hematopathology","Cancer genomics"],"profiles":[{"label":"PubMed","url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Downing+JR%5BAuthor%5D"}],"papers":[{"title":"AML1, the Target of Multiple Chromosomal Translocations in Human Leukemia, Is Essential for Normal Fetal Liver Hematopoiesis","journal":"Cell","year":1996,"doi":"10.1016/s0092-8674(00)80986-1"},{"title":"Germline Mutations in Predisposition Genes in Pediatric Cancer","journal":"New England Journal of Medicine","year":2015,"doi":"10.1056/nejmoa1508054"},{"title":"Genomic Analysis of the Clonal Origins of Relapsed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia","journal":"Science","year":2008,"doi":"10.1126/science.1164266"}],"orcid":"0000-0003-4931-2913"},"route":"/people/james-r-downing/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"all-leukemia","kind":"cancer","name":"Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia","route":"/cancers/all-leukemia/"},{"id":"aml","kind":"cancer","name":"Acute myeloid leukaemia","route":"/cancers/aml/"}],"institution":[{"id":"st-jude","kind":"institution","name":"St. Jude Children's Research Hospital","route":"/institutions/st-jude/"}]}}