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Cigall Kadoch is an institute member of the Ó³»­´«Ã½ and an assistant professor of pediatric oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Kadoch studies chromatin regulation, with a strong focus on the structure and function of the mammalian SWI/SNF or BAF family of chromatin remodeling complexes in human cancer. Her work has been centered on mechanistically interrogating rare, molecularly well-defined cancers, to understand the role these complexes play in promoting a wide range of more common cancer types.  

Kadoch completed her graduate and postdoctoral research at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Working alongside renowned developmental biologist Gerald Crabtree, she used a series of biochemical experiments in combination with data-mining to identify a novel set of proteins, components of the mSWI/SNF or BAF complex, which regulates chromatin structure in cells. Kadoch and her colleagues were able to link mutations in molecular subunits of the BAF complex to more than one-fifth of human cancers. In addition, she worked to uncover the precise mechanism of BAF complex perturbation in a rare, aggressive soft-tissue sarcoma, known as synovial sarcoma. As an institute member of the Ó³»­´«Ã½â€™s Cancer Program and Chemical Biology Platform, Kadoch is applying her knowledge of chromatin regulation and biochemistry to develop new therapeutic approaches for cancers driven by BAF mutations.

Kadoch earned her undergraduate degree in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in cancer biology from Stanford University School of Medicine. In 2014, she was named to Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in Science & Healthcare. She is also the recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and is a Pew-Stewart Scholar in Cancer Research and a Merkin Institute Fellow at the Ó³»­´«Ã½.