Dr. Cunningham is an innovator in the treatment of hemoglobinopathies in children – particularly the novel use of stem cell transplantation. 

Dr. Cunningham is a native of Ireland, received his medical degree from the University College in Dublin and completed his residency at St. Laurence’s Hospital, Dublin. He pursued his clinical fellowship at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin and both a clinical and research fellowship with the Department of Hematology at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London.  Since 1993 he has been with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as a leader in the Division of Experimental Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation. 

His primary research interests are the biology and therapy of hemoglobinopathies, elucidation of transcriptional mechanisms operative during development of vertebrate organisms, and the development of novel clinical trials for treatment of genetic diseases. Dr. Cunningham is on the editorial board of Journal of Biological Chemistry, and is a reviewer for Blood, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cancer Research and Genomics. His own publication history is extensive – with over 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals, invited reviews and book chapters. He is a sought-after speaker and serves as Vice Chair of the American Cancer Society Molecular Genetics and Oncogenes Study Section.