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Dr. Joanna Yi

Location

Texas Medical Center

Specialty
Cancer and Hematology
Phone: 832-822-4242
Fax: 832-825-1453
Email

jsyi@texaschildrens.org

Address

1102 Bates Ave., Ste. 1200
Houston, TX 77030

Joanna S. Yi, MD

Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Section of Hematology/Oncology, Baylor College of Medicine

Education

School Education Degree Year
Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Fellowship Pediatric Hematology/Oncology 2013
University of Minnesota Residency Pediatrics 2010
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Medical School Doctor of Medicine 2007

About

Dr. Joanna Yi is a member of the Developmental Therapeutics Program and Leukemia Team and sees patients with acute leukemias and/or on early phase clinical trials. Her clinical interests include solid tumors, leukemia and new drug development.

Board Certifications
American Board of Pediatrics
American Board of Pediatrics - Pediatric Hematology/Oncology

Organizations

Organization Name Role
American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Member
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Member
American Society of Hematology (ASH) Member
American Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology (ASPHO) Member
Children's Oncology Group (COG) Member
Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA) Member

Research Statement

Dr. Joanna Yi's translational research focuses on the pre-clinical identification and development of new, targeted small molecules for the treatment of childhood cancers with the purpose of evaluating them in clinical trials. She is especially interested in epigenetic drugs and combining them with other active agents.

Dr. Yi wants to discover new, less toxic, targeted drugs by combining the translational drug discovery techniques of the Center for Drug Discovery at Baylor College of Medicine, with the clinical developmental therapeutics program of Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center. In the laboratory, Dr. Yi is working with investigators within the Cancer Center to identify and characterize small molecules with clinical promise in challenging pediatric cancers. This includes screening several targets in Ewing sarcoma and AML against the CDD's >5 billion compound library. She is eager to oversee the screening of any validated oncology target through this unique academic resource and hopes investigators outside TXCH will contact her to set this up. Additionally, as many cancers seen in children do not have mutations detected by DNA sequencing, Dr. Yi has applied an alternate drug discovery approach to pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which is looking at the control the expression of genes driving the leukemia. She has already found a druggable target, which hopefully is one of many new targets she can screen for new drugs to eventually bring to children with AML. She also is developing tests of “on-target” effect of these compounds to be used in clinical trials.

Research Interests
Pre-clinical targeted drug development
Clinical application of new targeted drugs and combinations
Developing pharmacodynamics biomarker assays

Language

English



* Texas Children's Hospital physicians' licenses and credentials are reviewed prior to practicing at any of our facilities. Sections titled From the Doctor, Professional Organizations and Publications were provided by the physician's office and were not verified by Texas Children's Hospital.