St. Jude names 1st chief data scientist, creates $195M research enterprise

M. Madan Babu, PhD, has been appointed the inaugural chief data scientist of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Dr. Babu was also named senior vice president for data sciences and will lead the hospital’s newly formed Office of Data Science, according to an Oct. 1 news release from St. Jude.

The new $195 million research enterprise will create 115 new positions, the release said.

In his new role, Dr. Babu will bring data science approaches and advanced computing technologies to biomedical research, the release said. 

“Under the leadership of Dr. Babu, a globally recognized expert in this field, our Office of Data Science will strengthen data-sharing between the lab and the clinic, accelerating our progress in finding cures and developing treatments for children with catastrophic diseases,” St. Jude President and CEO James Downing, MD, said in the release.

Dr. Babu joined the structural biology department at St. Jude in 2020 after spending 14 years as a program leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, according to the release.

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}