St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Seeing the impact of targeted therapy on a classmate with a rare form of leukemia helped shape Swati Naik, MBBS, and her path as a physician-scientist. Today, in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, she advances innovative treatments for children with blood cancers.
Her research focuses on acute myeloid leukemia, refining CAR T–cell therapies to improve precision and effectiveness, and developing transplantation approaches that combine graft engineering with immune effectors.
Mentorship and patient care have guided Naik’s path at every stage. She has been mentored by Stephen Gottschalk, MD, Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy chair, since she joined his lab to deepen her understanding of CAR T-cell therapy and through all the levels of her career since becoming an independent investigator.
In addition to her clinical and research roles, Naik is also faculty in the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, where she mentors the next generation of scientists and was recently recognized with the Outstanding Mentorship Award for the Clinical Investigations Program.
Above all, her patients remain her greatest source of motivation. Caring for children while advancing research fuels her commitment to discovery and drives her mission to expand treatment possibilities and improve outcomes.
‘I had the opportunity to stay in the lab, and while I love the research, I equally love the patients. The ability to be a physician-scientist, where I do both research and clinical care, is of utmost importance to me. The patients are the reason to keep going.’
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