Jacqueline E. Payton, MD, PhD

Jacqueline E. Payton, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and immunology in the Division of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine, is honored for her research, which has resulted in a broader understanding of the molecular basis of myeloid and lymphoid malignancies.

Payton, who also serves as director of the Clinical Pathology Physician Scientist Training Program, conducts research focused on elucidating the role of genomic and epigenomic aberrations in promoting cellular transformation and cancer. With her background in molecular and cellular biology and in cancer genomics, Payton has developed new algorithms to translate the information in large data sets related to gene regulatory compounds known as the epigenome and transcriptome. She and her colleagues identified two new subclasses of follicular lymphoma with biological and clinical differences. Payton also developed a protein that blocks the proliferation of lymphoma cells through the suppression of a specific tumor-causing gene; her work holds great promise in identifying future cancer therapeutics.

Payton’s research has been published in multiple high-impact journals, and she has been recognized for seamlessly blending discovery- and hypothesis-driven research in her laboratory. As she applies her research findings to clinical diagnostics, Payton is poised to harness the power of new molecular diagnostic technologies and next-generation sequencing to new investigations aimed at improving diagnosis and targeted therapies for cancer.

Payton earned her medical degree and doctoral degree — in molecular and cellular biology — in 2004 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After completing her residency in clinical pathology at Washington University, she joined the faculty as an instructor in 2009. In addition to her academic and research positions, Payton serves as medical director of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.