Assistant Research Physician
National Cancer Institute
After earning his undergraduate degree from Haverford College, Dr. R. Taylor Sundby received his M.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. At Vanderbilt, Dr. Sundby completed a medical scholar research year in the laboratory of Dr. Jennifer Pietenpol studying the effect of obesity on genetic heterogeneity in triple negative breast cancer. This was followed by his pediatric internship and residency training at the University of California San Francisco where he was a member of the Clinical and Translational Science Pathway, working with pediatric geneticist Dr. Joseph Shieh to investigate how vastly different malignant phenotypes and accumulated mutations arise across cancers stemming from common driver mutations. Dr. Sundby then joined the combined Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Fellowship training program at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Pediatric Oncology Branch (POB) and Johns Hopkins University under the mentorship of Dr. Jack Shern. His research in Dr. Shern’s lab led to the CCR milestone publication “Cell-free DNA ultra-low-pass whole genome sequencing to distinguish malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) from its benign precursor lesion: A cross-sectional study.” Dr. Sundby became an Assistant Research Physician in 2022. He is a Francis S. Collins Scholar, past recipient of the Children’s Cancer Foundation NextGen Award and is board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology.
