Our Team and Interests
Center Chief
Professor and Chief, Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Douglas K. Graham, MD, PhD, is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigator with an active lab developing novel therapeutics for pediatric cancer, recently validating MerTK as a novel cancer agent in leukemia, melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma. He has served in multiple leadership roles with the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and has an appointment as a full member of the NIH Molecular and Cellular Hematology Study Section.
Our Fellowship Program leadership
Katie Sutton, MD
Fellowship Program Director, Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine
Dan Wechsler, MD, PhD
Fellowship Program Co-Director, Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine
Shanmuganathan Chandrakasan, MD: Hematopoietic cell transplant/gene therapy for immune deficiency, immune deficiency, immune dysregulation and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), immunohematology and bone marrow failure, stem cell biology
Ann E. Haight, MD: BMT in sickle cell disease and other nonmalignant diseases, supportive care in BMT and infections in the immunocompromised host, and clinical research ethics
Edwin Horwitz, MD, PhD: Transplantation of marrow cells and mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to treat cancer and genetic disorders of childhood
Kathryn Leung, MD, Medical Director of BMT: Pediatric bone marrow or stem cell transplant for patients with bone marrow failure due to multiple causes and for patients with hemoglobinopathies
Suhag Parikh, MD, Clinical Director of Cellular Therapies for Nonmalignant Diseases: Bone marrow and stem cell transplantation; gene therapy for nonmalignant disorders, including hemoglobinopathies (sickle cell disease, thalassemia); primary immune deficiencies; and inherited metabolic disorders
Muna Qayed, MD, MSc, BMT Program Director: Incorporation of novel agents into the treatment of relapsed solid tumors, improving current treatments for patients with high-risk disease, including autologous stem cell transplant and developing more effective prophylaxis and treatment against GVHD in patients undergoing allogeneic BMT
Michelle Schoettler, MD: Investigating disorders of endothelial dysfunction after hematopoietic cellular therapy using multiple clinical research methods, including retrospective studies, prospective cohort studies, biomarker studies and interventional clinical trials
Kirsten Williams, MD: Translational research to address major complications of hematopoietic cell transplantation, including studies to treat leukemia relapse by advancing immunotherapeutic approaches with novel biomarkers of response, studies to elucidate immune recovery and biomarkers of graft failure, and the diagnosis and treatment of chronic GVHD of the lungs
General hematology
Staci Arnold, MD, MPH, MBA: Health outcomes, cost-benefit analysis, comparative effectiveness research for sickle cell disease and bone marrow failure syndromes
Pauline Balkaransingh, MD, MPH
Jeanne M. Boudreaux, MD, Clinical Director of Hematology: Thalassemia, bone marrow failure syndromes, hemolytic anemias and white cell disorders
Michael A. Briones, DO: Vascular anomalies, histiocytic disorders, general hematology and inherited bone marrow failure syndrome
Shanmuganathan Chandrakasan, MD: Hematopoietic cell transplant and gene therapy for immune deficiency, immune deficiency, immune dysregulation and HLH, immunohematology and bone marrow failure, and stem cell biology
Satheesh Chonat, MD: Red cell enzyme and red membrane deficiencies
Kirshma Khemani, MD: Benign hematology, sickle cell disease and post-transplant late effects
Marianne E. Yee, MD, MSc: Clinical research in sickle cell disease, hemoglobin disorders, transfusion therapy and BMT for patients with sickle cell disease
Hemophilia and thrombosis
Renhao Li, PhD: Development of novel reagents to improve bleeding diagnostics and platelet storage
Pete Lollar, MD: Development of novel recombinant Factor VIII molecules for use in preventing and treating hemophilia patients with inhibitors, basic research in biosynthesis and expression of Factor VIII
Shannon Meeks, MD, Program Director of Hemostasis and Thrombosis : Basic and translational research in hemophilia A and inhibitors
Robert Sidonio Jr., MD, Clinical Director of Hemostasis and Thrombosis and Director of the Clinical Research Office: von Willebrand disease, particularly in the setting of menorrhagia
Yingchun Wang, MD, PhD: Clinical basic and translational research in hemophilia and thrombosis
Michael White, MD, MSc: Thrombosis in unique pediatric populations and management of heavy menstrual bleeding in adolescents with bleeding disorders and those taking anticoagulation
Gary Woods, MD, Medical Director of Hematology: Venous thromboembolism, especially in chronic diseases like sickle cell disease and pediatric heart disease, and coagulation disorders
Karen Zimowski, MD: Regulation of coagulation and the intricate processes that maintain balance between hemostasis and thrombosis
Sickle cell disease
David R. Archer, PhD: Hematopoietic stem cell transplant for genetic disease, particularly sickle cell disease, and use of stem cells in regenerative medicine
Carlton D. Dampier, MD: Clinical trials in sickle cell disease, measurement science of patient- and parent-reported outcomes, and symptom management in sickle cell disease, particularly pain
Beatrice Gee, MD, Program Director of the Sickle Cell Disease Program: Clinical research in sickle cell disease
Elaissa Hardy, PhD: Effects of applied electricity with hemostasis
Clinton H. Joiner, MD, PhD, Director of Hematology: Red cell physiology, specifically cation transport and volume regulation and their perturbation in sickle cell disease
Wilbur A. Lam, MD, PhD: Development and application of novel bioengineering technologies to study, diagnose and treat hematologic disorders
Peter A. Lane, MD: Newborn screening, health outcomes and clinical trials in sickle cell disease
David Myers, PhD: Developing novel microsystems for clinical diagnosis and high-throughput single cell studies
Elna Saah, MD: Erythrocyte rheology and multi-omics applications in sickle cell disease
Amy Tang, MD: Sickle cell anemia and transfusional iron overload
Marianne E. Yee, MD, MSc, Clinical Director of Sickle Cell Disease Program: Clinical research in sickle cell disease, hemoglobin disorders, transfusion therapy and BMT for patients with sickle cell disease
Transfusion medicine
Ross Fasano, MD: Clinical transfusion medicine and blood safety in patients with sickle cell disease, thalassemia and oncologic diseases
Margo Rollins, MD: Clinical transfusion medicine, red blood cell alloimmunization, transfusion-associated hemosiderosis and apheresis
Patty Zerra, MD: Investigating the initiating immune events underlying factor VIII inhibitor formation and red blood cell alloimmunization
Leukemia and lymphoma
Waitman Aumann, MD: The fusion protein CALM-AF10, which leads to leukemia; how CALM-AF10 interacts with DNA; and downstream effector genes, including the HOXA gene cluster, MEIS1 and SIX1
D. John Bergsagel, MD: Clinical trials in leukemia and lymphoma
Kevin D. Bunting, PhD, Research Director of Leukemia and Lymphoma Program: Normal cytokine signaling in hematopoiesis and dysregulated signaling associated with inflammation and cancer
Sharon Castellino, MD, Director of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Program: Hodgkin lymphoma and survivorship
Deborah DeRyckere, PhD: Preclinical development of novel small molecule MerTK inhibitors for oncology applications, TAM-family receptor tyrosine signaling and biology, and murine xenograft models of acute leukemia
Kavita Dhodapkar, MD, PhD, Translational Research Director: Mechanisms of immune regulation, in the context of autoimmunity as well as tumor immunity; in vivo effects of immune checkpoint blocking therapies, including the role for B cells in development of autoimmunity following treatment with these agents; and methods to boost anti-tumor immunity using dendritic cells
Douglas K. Graham, MD, PhD, Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Chief: Developing novel therapeutics for pediatric cancer, recently validating MerTK as a novel cancer agent in leukemia, melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma
Lubing Gu, MD: Molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in childhood cancer and leukemia
Curtis Henry, PhD: How chronic inflammation associated with aging and obesity impacts leukemia development and therapeutic responses
Frank G. Keller, MD: Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trial for low-risk Hodgkin lymphoma (principal investigator) and clinical trials in Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia
Tamara Miller, MD, MSCE: Understanding and improving reporting of adverse events of therapy for pediatric cancer
Melinda Pauly, MD, Overall Medical Director of Aflac and Medical Director of Oncology: Relationship of the BCL-2 family of proteins within the intrinsic apoptotic pathway to members of the autophagy pathway
Christopher Porter, MD: Cancer genetics and leukemia research
Cheng-Kui Qu, MD, PhD: Cell signaling and metabolic regulation of hematopoietic stem cells focusing on the role of protein and lipid phosphatases in normal hematopoietic cell development and leukemogenesis; development of novel therapeutics for phosphatases-associated blood disorders, such as juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia
Himalee Sabnis, MD, MSc, Clinical Director of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Program: Biology of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), signaling pathways in leukemic cells and new therapeutic agents in AML
Ryan Summers, MD: Translational research focused on identifying novel therapeutic targets in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), precision oncology, developing drug sensitivity assays and correlating the results with tumor sequencing data as part of the Precision Medicine Program
Zhengqi Wang, PhD: Study of STAT5 and its function in signaling mechanisms in leukemogenesis, hematopoietic stem cell biology and transplant
Daniel Wechsler, MD, PhD, Director of Oncology: Infant leukemias, pathogenesis of poor prognosis CALM-associated leukemias and MYC antagonism in neuroblastoma
William G. Woods, MD: Clinical trials within COG in myeloid leukemia
Dan Yan, PhD: The role of MerTK on human non-small cell lung cancer
Muxiang Zhou, MD: Signaling pathways and regulators of apoptosis relating to drug resistance in ALL
Palliative care
Katharine Brock, MD, MS: Clinical research in palliative care, assessing and improving access and quality of pediatric palliative care within oncology, and metrics and outcomes associated with a pediatric supportive care clinic
Solid tumors
Thomas Cash, MD, MSc, Program Director of Solid Tumors: Testing novel therapeutic agents and combinations in Phase 1 and 2 trials for patients with relapsed or refractory pediatric solid tumors; clinical trials of immunotherapy in combination with other agents, including radiation and chemotherapy; therapeutic meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG); neuroblastoma; and sarcomas
Kelly Goldsmith, MD: Basic and translational research of neuroblastoma, with a primary focus on mechanisms of therapy resistance
Andrew Hong, MD: Patient-derived models, next-generation sequencing, functional genomics to identify new biology and therapeutic targets in high-risk childhood solid tumor cancers
Sarah Mitchell, MD: Solid tumors and rare tumors and underlying hereditary cancer syndrome
Thomas A. Olson, MD: Committee chair for COG germ cell disease and clinical trials in germ cell tumors, retinoblastoma and bone tumors
Claire Stokes, MD, MPH: Quality improvement and patient safety, particularly as it relates to guideline development and implementation
Kathryn Sutton, MD, Clinical Director of Solid Tumors: Clinical research in solid tumors, including renal tumors, liver tumors, sarcomas and histiocytosis
Karen Wasilewski-Masker, MD, MSc: Survivorship and solid tumors clinical trials
Neuro-oncology
Dolly Aguilera, MD: Development of Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for children with recurrent brain tumors
Robert C. Castellino, MD: Pediatric neuro-oncology and interactions between p53, Hedgehog and PI-3 Kinase cell signaling in neuronal development, brain tumor development or progression, and as targets for drug development
Jason Fangusaro, MD, Director of Developmental Therapeutics: Development of early-phase clinical trials, novel therapeutics and relevant biologic correlates for children with brain tumors in an effort to improve survival outcomes and minimize toxicities
Anna J. Janss, MD, PhD: Phase 1 COG clinical trials and innovative therapeutics for brain tumors
Anna M. Kenney, PhD: How Sonic hedgehog and interacting signal transduction pathways control normal and neoplastic development within the cerebellum
Tobey J. MacDonald, MD, Director of Neuro-oncology: Basic and translational research of childhood brain tumors with a primary research focus on the metastasis and role of platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR) signaling
Claire M. Mazewski, MD: COG high-risk medulloblastoma trial for young children (principal investigator) and clinical trials, innovative therapeutics and late-effects studies for children with brain tumors
Sheila McThenia, MD
Shubin Shahab, MD: The biology of the high-grade pediatric brain tumor medulloblastoma and the role of non-bonding RNAs as well as RNA-binding proteins in their carcinogenesis
Christopher B. Doering, PhD: Development of modified blood coagulation factors and implementation in gene transfer-based therapies
Sunil Raikar, MD: Development of novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer cells against T-cell malignancies
H. Trent Spencer, PhD, Program Director of Gene Therapy: Developing and implementing cell and gene therapy for the treatment of childhood cancer and inherited diseases, with a specific emphasis on the genetic engineering of hematopoietic stem cells
Jason Fangusaro, MD, Director of Developmental Therapeutics:Development of early-phase clinical trials, novel therapeutics and relevant biologic correlates for children with brain tumors in an effort to improve survival outcomes and minimize toxicities
Dolly Aguilera, MD: Development of Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for children with recurrent brain tumors
Thomas Cash, MD, MSc, Program Director of Solid Tumors:Outcomes and epidemiology in rare pediatric tumors, the role of ezrin and tumor necrosis in patients with Ewing’s sarcoma, and innovative therapy and Phase 1 and 2 trials
Melinda Pauly, MD, Overall Medical Director of Aflac and Medical Director of Oncology: Relationship of the BCL-2 family of proteins within the intrinsic apoptotic pathway to members of the autophagy pathway
Himalee Sabnis, MD, MSc, Clinical Director of Leukemia/Lymphoma Program: Biology of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), signaling pathways in leukemic cells and new therapeutic agents in AML
Karen Effinger, MD, Co-Director of Cancer Survivorship: Physical and psychosocial functioning in children, adolescents and young adults after cancer treatment, with a particular focus in cardiovascular health, health risk behaviors, wellness and physical functioning
Sanyu Janardan, MD, MSc: Late effects of oncology therapy
Jordan Marchak, PhD, Co-Director of Cancer Survivorship Program
Lillian R. Meacham, MD, Director of Fertility Preservation and Reproductive Health Program: Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, educating survivors and providers about survivor care, and endocrine late effects in oncology patients
Ann C. Mertens, PhD: Childhood and adolescent cancer survivorship
Briana C. Patterson, MD: Late effects of cancer therapy in brain tumor patients and endocrine problems following cancer treatment
Manoj Bhasin, PhD, Director, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology: Developing novel single cell omics approaches to understand disease heterogeneity and impact of treatments at single cell resolution
Swati Bhasin, PhD: Exploring new therapeutic targets using multidimensional single cell profiling to improve outcomes in pediatric leukemias
Joanna Grossman, MD: Racial and ethnic disparities in pediatric AML outcomes; expression of CD36 and the presence of cytoplasmic granules in blasts predicting poor prognosis in children with B-lymphoblastic leukemia
Grace Fong, PhD: Acquired brain injury and clinical trials for late effects
Lisa Ingerski, PhD: Childhood psychology
James Klosky, PhD, Director of Psychology: Childhood cancer psychology
Jennifer Lee, PhD: Childhood cancer psychology
Jordan Marchak, PhD: Childhood cancer survivorship and transition to adult care
Laura Mee, PhD: Childhood cancer psychology issues with transplant patients, pain management and coping with chronic medical conditions
Soumitri Sil, PhD: Research on pediatric pain management focused on the development and evaluation of behavioral interventions to promote the health and functioning of children and adolescents with complex chronic pain conditions
Elizabeth Thompson, PsyD: Pain management, pica and coping with chronic illness
Angela Roddenberry Vaz, PhD: Consultation liaison in pediatric psycho-oncology, parent-child coping with pediatric chronic illness, and chronic stress and bereavement
Naadira Upshaw, PsyD: Improvement of health-related quality of life, with a specific emphasis on pediatric patients with cancer and blood disorders, and health-related quality improvement projects
Justin Williams, PhD: Psychosocial functioning of and resiliency among youth with sickle cell disease and transition to adult care for youth with sickle cell disease