Доктор Чарльз Робертс станет новым главой детского онкологического центра St. Jude с 2027 года

St. Jude’s Next CEO: Hospital stands at dawn of a new era MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Dr. Charles “Charlie” W.M. Roberts will become the next President and CEO of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, effective January 1, 2027. The St. Jude Board of Governors and a faculty search team selected the 61-year-old physician and research scientist following a rigorous four-to-five-month interview process. He will succeed Dr. James Downing, who originally recruited Roberts to Memphis from the Dana-Farber Cancer Center and the faculty of Harvard University 11 years ago to lead the St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center. Roberts, a Madison, Wisconsin, native who raised four sons with his wife, shared his vision for the hospital during a recent one-hour visit with Action News 5. He described the institution as standing at the “dawn of a new era,” comparing the current medical landscape to the moment Steve Jobs launched the iPhone. “When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone, he made the point that it only became possible at that point in time because of a convergence of new technologies,” Roberts said. “I believe that on our mission, we are at a similar convergence of technologic advances that will enable us to go forward faster than ever before.” A central driver of this accelerated pace is artificial intelligence. St. Jude has already built a robust team of data scientists to integrate AI across its campus. Roberts noted that the hospital holds the world’s largest collection of pediatric cancer models and vulnerability data, positioning it as a global leader in applying AI to catastrophic childhood illnesses. “If we talk about artificial intelligence, it might be faster for me to list the places we’re not using AI than where we are,” Roberts said. Watch Roberts’ full interview with Joe Birch here: According to Roberts, traditional drug discovery required researchers to randomly screen millions of molecules to find a single effective target—a process he likened to “looking for a specific key in a sea of keys.” AI allows scientists to home in on specific chemical types quickly, accelerating drug design and bringing researchers closer to designing treatments entirely from scratch. St. Jude is currently partnering with major AI firms to advance these capabilities. Roberts expressed confidence that these technological leaps will allow St. Jude to identify precise vulnerabilities to eliminate cancer without causing harm to pediatric patients, scale treatments for various catastrophic childhood diseases, and expand the hospital’s global mission. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to realize much more of Danny Thomas’ dream than ever before,” Roberts said, noting his goals build directly upon the phenomenal impact of his predecessor, Dr. Downing. Click here to sign up for our newsletter! Click here to report a spelling or grammar error. Please include the headline. Copyright 2026 WMC. All rights reserved.