Dr. Reynolds grew up in El Paso, TX, received his BA in Biology from The University of Texas at Austin, his MD from UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX, his PhD (Cell Biology) from UT Austin, and his pediatrics training at the National Naval Medical Center. His postdoctoral fellowship was in cancer immunology at UT Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX. He holds the rank of Commander, US Navy (retired). He is currently the Cancer Center Director for the School of Medicine, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (http://cancer.ttuhsc.edu), and is Director of the South Plains Oncology Consortium (SPOC: www.SPONC.org) and the ALSF/COG Childhood Cancer Repository (www.CCcells.org).
Dr Reynolds’ research focuses cancer developmental therapeutics and he pioneered the development of the differentiating agent isotretinoin for treating the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. His most recent research focuses on two areas: 1) Use of telomere maintenance mechanisms as cancer biomarkers for neuroblastoma and other cancers and developing agents to specifically target alternate telomere lengthening (ALT) cancers. 2) Assessing GD2 expression on neuroblastoma cells as a mechanism of resistance to chemoimmunotherapy and developing novel non-GD2 anti-neuroblastoma antibodies. Other research interests include mechanisms of resistance to drugs and antibody therapy in childhood and adult cancers, establishing and biobanking of cancer patient-derived models. Dr. Reynolds is an author or co-author of over 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers with > 31,000 citations (H Index = 87). His avocations include film making and special effects (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0721623/), competitive shooting, playing guitar, and composing music.