Creating biotechnologies that improve human health
We invent single-cell and cell-free genomics methods, then use them to understand how childhood cancers arise, evolve, and resist treatment, and to build faster, more accurate diagnostics.
Invent new ways to read single cells
The lab invented primary template-directed amplification (PTA), which recovers the genome of a single cell more completely and accurately than earlier methods, and has extended it to paired genome, transcriptome, and methylation readouts from the same cell.
Discover how cancer evolves and escapes
We follow individual leukemia cells through diagnosis, treatment, and relapse to learn why a small fraction of cells survive therapy, and how somatic mutations accumulate in normal tissues throughout life.
Translate discoveries into diagnostics
As a practicing pediatric oncologist, Chuck Gawad leads the lab toward tests that detect relapse and infection earlier, from plasma cell-free DNA sequencing to single-microbe genomics.
What we work on
Five connected programs, each pairing a technology we build with a biological or clinical question it is built to answer.
Read about each program- 01→
Single-cell & cell-free genomics technologies
PTA and its multi-omic extensions for accurate variant, transcript, and methylation measurements from one cell, plus methods for cell-free DNA.
- 02→
Leukemia clonal evolution & treatment resistance
Sequencing rare persistent leukemia cells to find the mechanisms of resistance, and building assays that detect relapse before it is clinically visible.
- 03→
Somatic mosaicism in human tissues
Measuring the genetic and epigenetic state of the same single cells from normal and diseased tissues to learn how mutations acquired over a lifetime shape disease.
- 04→
Infectious disease diagnostics
Plasma cell-free metagenomic sequencing that predicts bloodstream infection in children with cancer, and rapid, low-cost approaches to diagnosing sepsis.
- 05→
Single-microbe genomics
scMicrobe PTA recovers near-complete genomes from individual bacterial cells without culture, opening strain-level views of microbial communities and antimicrobial resistance.
Recent papers
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Predicting bloodstream infection by plasma cell-free metagenomic sequencing: a prospective cohort study
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Somatic mtDNA mutations at intermediate levels of heteroplasmy are a source of functional heterogeneity among primary leukemic cells
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Single-Cell Sequencing Reveals Extensive Genetic Diversity Underlying Pediatric ALL Treatment Complexity
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Defining heritability, plasticity, and transition dynamics of cellular phenotypes in somatic evolution
From the lab
Bill Evans becomes CEO of BioSkryb Genomics
William E. Evans, former President and CEO of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and a long-time collaborator of the lab, is named Chief Executive Officer of BioSkryb Genomics, the company founded to bring PTA to researchers and clinics.
Cell-free DNA offers early warning for bloodstream infections in kids with leukemia
St. Jude announces results of a prospective study, with Chuck Gawad among the authors, showing that plasma microbial cell-free DNA sequencing can detect bloodstream infections in children with high-risk leukemia days before symptoms appear.
Mitochondrial DNA mutations shape how leukemia starts and progresses
A St. Jude release describes work with Veronica Gonzalez-Pena and Chuck Gawad showing that somatic mitochondrial DNA mutations at intermediate heteroplasmy are selected during leukemia development and may contribute to therapy resistance.
Our work is made possible by
Come build the next generation of single-cell tools
The lab is growing and hiring now. We welcome postdocs, scientists, analysts, students, and collaborators who want to work at the boundary of technology development and pediatric oncology.