Dr. Kathryn O’Donnell grew up in Buffalo, New York, and received a B.S. in Biology from Cornell University in 1998. 

After completing a 1-year fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, Kathryn obtained her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2005.   Her graduate work in Dr. Chi Dang’s laboratory focused on investigating the mechanisms underlying MYC-mediated tumorigenesis, establishing important roles for Transferrin Receptor 1 (TFRC1) and microRNAs in this oncogenic network.  Kathryn stayed at Johns Hopkins and completed postdoctoral fellowship research in the laboratory of Dr. Jef Boeke in the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department. 

Read More

Dr. Kathryn O’Donnell grew up in Buffalo, New York, and received a B.S. in Biology from Cornell University in 1998. 

After completing a 1-year fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, Kathryn obtained her Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2005.   Her graduate work in Dr. Chi Dang’s laboratory focused on investigating the mechanisms underlying MYC-mediated tumorigenesis, establishing important roles for Transferrin Receptor 1 (TFRC1) and microRNAs in this oncogenic network.  Kathryn stayed at Johns Hopkins and completed postdoctoral fellowship research in the laboratory of Dr. Jef Boeke in the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department.

Her work involved both the application of existing transposon-mediated mutagenesis systems to perform forward genetic screens in mice as well as the development of new mutagenesis platforms for cancer gene discovery.  During this time, she was awarded a fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

In 2011, Kate was recruited to UT Southwestern Medical Center as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and received a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Recruitment of First-Time Tenure-Track Faculty Member Award.

Her current work is focused on understanding the mechanisms that contribute to lung tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis and applying insights from these studies towards the development of new therapies for lung cancer.  She has been supported by awards from the National Cancer Institute, the Sidney Kimmel Foundation, the LUNGevity Foundation, the Welch Foundation, and CPRIT.

Read Less