2023 Department of Pediatrics Academic Annual Report

Pediatric Hematology & Oncology

PEDIATRIC FACULTY Dr. Girish Dhall..............................................Director | Professor Dr. Elizabeth Alva .............................................Associate Professor Dr. Jamie Aye.......................................................Assistant Professor Dr. Christy Bemrich-Stolz ..............................Associate Professor Dr. Smita Bhatia..........................................Distinguished Professor Dr. Joseph Chewning.........................................................Professor Dr. Hilary Haines................................................Associate Professor Dr. Rintaro Hashizume.....................................Associate Professor Dr. Lee M. Hilliard ................................................................Professor Dr. Chibuzo Ilonze..............................................Assistant Professor Dr. Emily Johnston.............................................Assistant Professor Dr. Malgorzata Kasztan......................................Assistant Professor Dr. Matthew Kutny ..........................................Associate Professor Dr. Wendy Landier ..............................................................Professor Dr. Jeffrey Lebensburger....................................................Professor Dr. Mary “Beth” Littrell........................................Assistant Professor Dr. Avi Madan-Swain...........................................................Professor Dr. Katie Metrock ...............................................Assistant Professor Dr. Donna Murdaugh.........................................Assistant Professor Dr. Loretta Parker................................................Assistant Professor Dr. Brandi Pernell................................................Assistant Professor Dr. Sheetal Phadnis.............................................Assistant Professor Dr. Purnima Singh.............................................Associate Professor

Dr. Aman Wadhwa..............................................Assistant Professor Dr. Emily Warren..................................................Assistant Professor Dr. Kim Whelan.....................................................................Professor Dr. Hope Wilson..................................................Assistant Professor Dr. Julie Wolfson...............................................Associate Professor Dr. Ana Xavier ...................................................Associate Professor

FEATURED RESEARCH The UAB Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology is committed to advancing research and taking findings from the bench to the bedside and then to the community. The division’s research efforts are coordinated by the Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, a collaboration between the UAB Department of Pediatrics and Children’s of Alabama. Additionally, the division works in close collaboration with members of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, the UAB Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship (ICOS), the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science, the UAB Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and Education, the Children’s Center for Supportive and Palliative Care, and the UAB School of Public Health. These multidisciplinary collaborations serve as a rich resource to accelerate the pace of discovery across the entire trajectory of disease from diagnosis to survivorship and end of life. Within the US, we are one of only 21 sites nationwide to participate in the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Pediatric

Early Phase Clinical Trials Network (PEP-CTN), one of 23 sites nationally to be a member of the Neurofibromatosis Consortium, one of 23 members of National Pediatric Cancer Foundation Sunshine Project, and one of 26 centers of Pacific Pediatric Neuro-oncology Consortium (PNOC); this allows us access to cutting-edge clinical trials for our patients with poor prognosis tumors.

ONCOLOGY RESEARCH

NEURO-ONCOLOGY PROGRAM The Pediatric Neuro-oncology Program is led by Katie Metrock, M.D. Dr. Metrock is a clinical trialist with a research focus in neurofibromatosis. She is the director of Pediatric Neurofibromatosis Tumor Clinic at Children’s of Alabama. She is involved in the Neurofibromatosis Clinical Trials Consortium (NFCTC), a Department of Defense-funded national clinical trials consortium. She is the principal investigator (PI) for a Phase II clinical trial for the Prevention of Plexiform Neurofibroma Growth and Morbidity in Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) as well as Chair of Quality Assurance Committee within NFCTC. She helped create and is now the co-chair for the Neurofibromatosis Virtual Case Conference series, which is a national, monthly case conference series through the Children’s Tumor Foundation. She is also the institutional co-PI for Pacific Pediatric Neuro-oncology Consortium (PNOC) and is leading a clinical trial using a combination of targeted and immune therapy for treatment of children and young adults with craniopharyngioma. Furthermore, she will be chairing a Phase II clinical trial of digoxin in relapsed medulloblastoma patients within

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