Robert R. Jenq, M.D.

Robert R. Jenq, M.D., is director of the City of Hope^® Microbiome Program and a clinical professor in the Department of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. With more than 20 years’ experience as a physician-scholar with expertise in fields such as genomics, bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, Dr. Jenq is committed to bringing leading-edge translational research from the lab to cancer patients’ bedsides.

In the clinic, Dr. Jenq specializes in treating patients diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma and other types of blood and bone marrow cancer. He works collaboratively and openly with patients, their loved ones and their cancer care teams to develop safe, effective and personalized treatment plans. He also enjoys working with and mentoring junior colleagues as they discover new and more effective treatment options for patients.

Board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, Dr. Jenq earned his medical degree at Oregon Health and Sciences University, then completed a residency in internal medicine at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and a clinical/research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Prior to joining City of Hope, he was deputy chair of the Department of Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson Acute Cancer Care Center in Houston, Texas.

As a scholar and researcher, Dr. Jenq has led or collaborated on multiple blood and bone marrow transplantation studies, developed innovative medical technologies and published on a wide range of topics, including the connection between the intestinal microbiome and the risk of graft-versus-host disease and neutropenic fever among hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients. His current research projects include collaborations in the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan, and he is a reviewer for more than a dozen internationally recognized journals in the fields of genomics, stem cell transplantation, translational research and leukemia and lymphoma.

• 2023-2025, Sabin Family Fellow, Physician-Scientist, MD Anderson

• 2016, Best Abstract Award for Basic Science Research, BMT Tandem Meetings

• 2015, Best Abstract Award for Basic Science Research, BMT Tandem Meetings

• 2014, Best Abstract Award for Basic Science Research, BMT Tandem Meetings

• 2010, Grant Recipient, Lucille Castori Center for Microbes, Inflammation and Cancer Seed Grant

• 2010, Grant Recipient, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Society

• 2008, Grant Recipient, Career Development Fellowship, Special Fellows in Clinical Research, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

• 2006, Grant Recipient, AACR-MedImmune Fellowship for Research on Biologics-Based Therapies for Cancer, American Association for Cancer Research

• Shono Y, Docampo MD, Peled JU, Perobelli SM, Velardi E, Tsai JJ, Slingerland AE, Smith OM, Young LF, Gupta J, Lieberman SR, Jay HV, Ahr KF, Porosnicu Rodriguez KA, Xu K, Calarfiore M, Poeck H, Caballero S, Devlin SM, Rapaport F, Dudakov JA, Hanash AM, Gyurkocza B, Murphy GF, Gomes C, Liu C, Moss EL, Falconer SB, Bhatt AS, Taur Y, Pamer EG, van den Brink MR*, Jenq RR*. Increased GVHD-related mortality with broad-spectrum antibiotic use after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in human patients and mice. Sci Transl Med. 2016 May 18;8(339):339ra71. PMID: 27194729; PMCID: PMC4991773. *equal contribution.
• Peled JU, Devlin SM, Staffas A, Lumish M, Khanin R, Littmann ER, Ling L, Kosuri S, Maloy M, Slingerland JB, Ahr KF, Porosnicu Rodriguez KA, Shono Y, Slingerland AE, Docampo MD, Sung AD, Weber D, Alousi AM, Gyurkocza B, Ponce DM, Barker JN, Perales M-A, Giralt SA, Taur Y, Pamer EG, Jenq RR*, van den Brink MRM*. Intestinal Microbiota and Relapse After Hematopoietic-Cell Transplantation. J Clin Oncol. 2017 May 20;35(15):1650-1659. PMID: 28296584; PMCID: PMC5455763. *equal contribution.
• Gopalakrishnan V, Spencer CN, Nezi L, Reuben A, Andrews MC, Karpinets TV, Prieto PA, Vicente D, Hoffman K, Wei SC, Cogdill AP, Zhao L, Hudgens CW, Hutchinson DS, Manzo T, Petaccia de Macedo M, Cotechini T, Kumar T, Chen WS, Reddy SM, Sloane RS, Galloway-Pena J, Jiang H, Chen PL, Shpall EJ, Rezvani K, Alousi AM, Chemaly RF, Shelburne S, Vence LM, Okhuysen PC, Jensen VB, Swennes AG, McAllister F, Sanchez EMR, Zhang Y, Le Chatelier E, Zitvogel L, Pons N, Austin-Breneman JL, Haydu LE, Burton EM, Gardner JM, Sirmans E, Hu J, Lazar AJ, Tsujikawa T, Diab A, Tawbi H, Glitza IC, Hwu WJ, Patel SP, Woodman SE, Amaria RN, Davies MA, Gershenwald JE, Hwu P, Lee JE, Zhang J, Coussens LM, Cooper ZA, Futreal PA, Daniel CR, Ajami NJ, Petrosino JF, Tetzlaff MT, Sharma P, Allison JP, Jenq RR*, Wargo JA*. Gut microbiome modulates response to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in melanoma patients. Science. 2018 Jan 5;359(6371):97-103. PMID: 29097493; PMCID: PMC5827966. *equal contribution.
• Wang Y, Wiesnoski DH, Helmink BA, Gopalakrishnan V, Choi K, DuPont HL, Jiang ZD, Abu-Sbeih H, Sanchez CA, Chang CC, Parra ER, Francisco-Cruz A, Raju GS, Stroehlein JR, Campbell MT, Gao J, Subudhi SK, Maru DM, Blando JM, Lazar AJ, Allison JP, Sharma P, Tetzlaff MT, Wargo JA*, Jenq RR*. Fecal microbiota transplantation for refractory immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated colitis. Nat Med. 2019 Jan;25(1):188. PMID: 30479380. *equal contribution.
• Hayase E, Hayase T, Jamal MA, Miyama T, Chang CC, Ortega MR, Ahmed SS, Karmouch JL, Sanchez CA, Brown AN, El-Himri RK, Flores II, McDaniel LK, Pham D, Halsey TM, Frenk AC, Chapa VA, Heckel BE, Jin Y, Tsai WB, Prasad R, Tan L, Veillon L, Ajami NJ, Wargo JA, Galloway-Peña JR, Shelburne SA, Chemaly RF, Davey L, Glowacki RWP, Liu C, Rondon G, Alousi AM, Molldrem JJ, Champlin RE, Shpall EJ, Valdivia RH, Martens EC, Lorenzi PL, Jenq RR. Mucus-degrading Bacteroides link carbapenems to aggravated graft-versus-host disease. Cell. 2022 Sep 29;185(20):3705-3719.e14. PMID: 36179667; PMCID: PMC9542352.
• Schwabkey ZI, Wiesnoski DH, Chang CC, Tsai WB, Pham D, Ahmed SS, Hayase T, Ortega Turrubiates MR, El-Himri RK, Sanchez CA, Hayase E, Frenk Oquendo AC, Miyama T, Halsey TM, Heckel BE, Brown AN, Jin Y, Raybaud M, Prasad R, Flores I, McDaniel L, Chapa V, Lorenzi PL, Warmoes MO, Tan L, Swennes AG, Fowler S, Conner M, McHugh K, Graf T, Jensen VB, Peterson CB, Do KA, Zhang L, Shi Y, Wang Y, Galloway-Pena JR, Okhuysen PC, Daniel-MacDougall CR, Shono Y, Burgos da Silva M, Peled JU, van den Brink MRM, Ajami N, Wargo JA, Reddy P, Valdivia RH, Davey L, Rondon G, Srour SA, Mehta RS, Alousi AM, Shpall EJ, Champlin RE, Shelburne SA, Molldrem JJ, Jamal MA, Karmouch JL, Jenq RR. Diet-derived metabolites and mucus link the gut microbiome to fever after cytotoxic cancer treatment. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Nov 16;14(671):eabo3445. PMID: 36383683; PMCID: PMC10028729.
• Stein-Thoeringer CK, Saini NY, Zamir E, Blumenberg V, Schubert ML, Mor U, Fante MA, Schmidt S, Hayase E, Hayase T, Rohrbach R, Chang CC, McDaniel L, Flores I, Gaiser R, Edinger M, Wolff D, Heidenreich M, Strati P, Nair R, Chihara D, Fayad LE, Ahmed S, Iyer SP, Steiner RE, Jain P, Nastoupil LJ, Westin J, Arora R, Wang ML, Turner J, Menges M, Hidalgo-Vargas M, Reid K, Dreger P, Schmitt A, Müller-Tidow C, Locke FL, Davila ML, Champlin RE, Flowers CR, Shpall EJ, Poeck H, Neelapu SS*, Schmitt M*, Subklewe M*, Jain MD*, Jenq RR*, Elinav E*. A non-antibiotic-disrupted gut microbiome is associated with clinical responses to CD19-CAR-T cell cancer immunotherapy. Nat Med. 2023 Apr;29(4):906-916. PMID: 36914893; PMC10121864. *equal contribution.
• Halsey TM, Thomas AS, Hayase T, Ma W, Abu-Sbeih H, Sun B, Parra ER, Jiang ZD, DuPont HL, Sanchez C, El-Himri R, Brown A, Flores I, McDaniel L, Ortega Turrubiates M, Hensel M, Pham D, Watowich SS, Hayase E, Chang CC, Jenq RR*, Wang Y*. Microbiome alteration via fecal microbiota transplantation is effective for refractory immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced colitis. Sci Transl Med. 2023 Jun 14;15(700):eabq4006. PMID: 37315113. *equal contribution.
• Jin Y, Miyama T, Brown A, Hayase T, Song X, Singh AK, Huang L, Flores II, McDaniel LK, Glover I, Halsey TM, Prasad R, Chapa V, Ahmed S, Zhang J, Rai K, Peterson CB, Lizee G, Karmouch J, Hayase E, Molldrem JJ, Chang CC, Tsai WB, Jenq RR. Tsyn-Seq: a T-cell Synapse-Based Antigen Identification Platform. Cancer Immunol Res. 2024 May 2;12(5):530-543. doi: 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-23-0467.PMID: 38363296
• Hayase E, Hayase T, Mukherjee A, Stinson SC, Jamal MA, Ortega MR, Sanchez CA, Ahmed SS, Karmouch JL, Chang C-C, Flores, II, McDaniel LK, Brown AN, El-Himri RK, Chapa VA, Tan L, Tran BQ, Xiao Y, Fan C, Pham D, Halsey TM, Jin Y, Tsai W-B, Prasad R, Glover IK, Enkhbayar A, Mohammed A, Schmiester M, King KY, Britton RA, Reddy R, Wong MC, Ajami NJ, Wargo JA, Shelburne S, Okhuysen PC, Liu C, Fowler SW, Conner ME, Katsamakis Z, Smith N, Burgos da Silva M, Ponce DM, Peled JU, van den Brink MRM, Peterson CB, Rondon G, Molldrem JJ, Champlin RE, Shpall EJ, Lorenzi PL, Mehta RS*, Martens EC*, Alousi AM*, Jenq RR*. *equal contribution. Bacteroides ovatus alleviates dysbiotic microbiota-induced graft-versus-host disease. Accepted, Cell Host & Microbe, 2024.