Dr. Jo Lynne Rokita is Principal Investigator (PI) of the Rokita Lab and Director of the Brain Tumor Institute (BTI) Bioinformatics Core Facility within the Center of Cancer and Immunology Research (CCIR) at Children’s National Hospital (CNH).
Before opening the Rokita Lab at CNH, Dr. Rokita led the Bioinformatics Translational Pediatric Oncology Team at the Center for Data-Driven Discovery in Biomedicine (D3b) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a team of multidisciplinary bioinformatics scientists who advance pediatric oncology research and precision medicine through cross-functional team collaboration and development of open-source analytical tools, frameworks, and data resources.
Dr. Rokita joined CHOP in 2015 and prior to joining D3b, she led integrative genomics research in the Maris Laboratory focused on genomic characterization of pediatric PDX models, defining the sub-clonal landscape of high-risk neuroblastoma, and elucidating epigenomic mechanisms of transcriptional repression in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma. Prior to joining CHOP, Dr. Rokita led the development and validation of clinical genetics reference materials for CMV, BK, and JC viruses at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Dr. Rokita completed her B.S. at the Pennsylvania State University (We are!), M.S. at Arcadia University, and Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is passionate about, and committed to, using genomics to improve survival and quality of life for children with brain tumors.