James Amatruda

Biography

 James F. Amatruda, MD, PhD is Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Molecular Biology and Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX, where he holds the Nearburg Family Professorship in Pediatric Oncology Research. He is also an Attending Physician in the Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, TX.  He received his A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University a combined MD, PhD from Washington University in St. Louis.  He did a residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, before joining Len Zon’s lab at Boston Children’s Hospital where he began his work using zebrafish as a model of human cancer. In 2005 he joined the faculty at UT Southwestern.  A physician-scientist, he divides his time between his research laboratory and Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, where he specializes in the care of children with cancer and blood disorders.  Research in the Amatruda lab focuses on understanding the genetic causes of childhood cancers, including genitourinary cancers and sarcomas, using zebrafish models and human genomic approaches. At UT Southwestern, Dr. Amatruda is the Associate Division Director for Research in the Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, and Assistant Director do the Medical Scientist Training Program. He also serves as Chair of the Germ Cell Tumor Biology and Rare Tumors Biology committees in the Children’s Oncology Group.

Research Interest

  Pediatrics