Renee Read, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Read serves as co-leader of the Cell and Molecular Biology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.
Education
Dr. Read earned her PhD in Developmental Biology and Biology and Biomedical Sciences from Washington University. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies with co-mentors at the University of California - San Diego.
Titles & Roles
Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology
Emory University School of Medicine
Co-Leader, Cell and Molecular Biology Research Program
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University
Research
Dr. Read is a developmental neurobiologist specializing in neuro-oncology. Her collaborative research program focuses on primary brain tumors, including high-grade gliomas (HGGs) and schwannomas. She investigates the functional roles of receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) signaling pathways and their key effectors in brain tumors, with an emphasis on developing therapies that target tumor cell–specific dependencies and intercellular communication within the tumor microenvironment.
Her program employs multidisciplinary experimental strategies, emphasizing advanced model systems for brain tumors, including animal models and patient-derived human models. As principal investigator, she established a bank of patient-derived HGG stem cell cultures and matched xenografts, which have supported multiple publications and collaborative studies, as well as the generation of novel organoid models of HGG. These resources have enabled a broad range of research collaborations and publications.
In partnership with faculty from the departments of Neurosurgery and Hematology and Medical Oncology, Dr. Read led investigator-initiated phase 0 and phase 1/2 clinical trials of the FDA-approved drug verteporfin as a potential new therapy for HGGs. This work has been supported by the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation, the Rally Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Her laboratory, in collaboration with other neuro-oncology researchers, has also uncovered novel links between RTK mutant variants and tumor plasticity in both therapeutic response and resistance, opening new avenues for rational combination therapies.
Dr. Read’s overarching goal is to discover and advance new therapies for patients with primary brain tumors.
JL Ross, Z Chen, CJ Herting, Y Grabovska, F Szulzewsky, M Puigdelloses, L Monterroza, J Switchenko, NR Wadhwani, PJ Cimino, A Mackay, C Jones, RD Read, TJ MacDonald, M Schniederjan, OJ Becher, D Hambardzumyan
A Koehler, A Karve, P Desai, J Arbiser, DR Plas, X Qi, RD Read, AT Sasaki, VS Gawali, DK Toukam, D Bhattacharya, L Kallay, DA Pomeranz Krummel, S Sengupta
Z Chen, CJ Herting, JL Ross, B Gabanic, M Puigdelloses Vallcorba, F Szulzewsky, ML Wojciechowicz, PJ Cimino, R Ezhilarasan, EP Sulman, M Ying, A Ma'ayan, RD Read, D Hambardzumyan