Professor
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Dr. Chandler received a B.S. from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas’ Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Houston, Texas. She conducted post-doctoral research in human genetics and in cancer genetics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center under the tutelage of Dr. Gigi Lozano. Dr. Chandler is currently a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and the Center for Childhood Cancer at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She is a member of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and American Association for Cancer Research.
Dr. Chandler’s research is centered on understanding the regulation of alternative pre-mRNA splicing and how disruption of this highly regulated process leads to pediatric cancer. She is an academic cancer expert with a deep understanding of pediatric cancer, RNA biology and pre-mRNA splicing. She is also highly experienced in graduate education administration. Dr. Chandler is the Inaugural Director of the Office of Trainee Affairs at Nationwide Children’s Hospital as well as the Graduate Studies Committee Chair and Co-Director of the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology Program at the Ohio State University. Her robust research program which spans from disease models of cancer (pediatric and adult) to neurodegeneration, as well as novel therapeutic design and administration, has been supported by numerous grants from multiple funding sources. These grants have been funded by cancer research foundations as well as the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, and the Department of Defense.
Dr. Chandler’s ultimate goal is to target splicing as a cancer therapeutic. The primary pre-mRNA transcripts of interest currently are the MDM2 gene to alter the p53 tumor suppressor pathway and the insulin receptor gene to interfere with IGF2 signaling in cancer.
