Mark Badeaux

Graduate Student

Mark Badeaux is third-year graduate student affiliated with the Molecular Carcinogenesis program administered by UT Houston GSBS.  He possessed scientific inquisitiveness at a young age, initially dreaming of a career in atmospheric science as a weatherman.  Over time, this desire morphed into an affinity for the life sciences; Mark received his Bachelors of Science in Microbiology  (after dabbling in Atmospheric Science and English Literature at the University of Arizona) from the University of Texas at Austin in 2002. 

He then took a hiatus from academia, but not from science, working for the Texas Department of State Health Services, alternately, in the Bacteriology lab and in the Infectious Disease Control Unit doing epidemiological surveillance for foodborne diseases such as Salmonellosis and Shigellosis. 

An intense personal desire to be part of the fight against cancer led him to the UT Houston Molecular Carcinogenesis program and to Science Park, where he has worked in Dr. Tang’s laboratory for nearly two years.  His current project involves investigating the role of the self-renewal/pluripotency gene Nanog in tumorigenesis.