I am a translational researcher committed to advancing novel cellular therapies and immunotherapies to treat children and young adults with cancer and blood disorders. I treat patients with solid tumors and patients receiving bone marrow transplants.

To strengthen my translational research skills, I shifted my focus to clinical implementation of laboratory efforts. Thus, I pursued a senior Pediatric Immunotherapy/Cellular Therapy fellowship at the NCI under the mentorship of Drs. Nirali Shah and John Glod in the Pediatric Oncology Branch. Through this training I am gaining experience in clinical trial design and toxicity management of novel cellular therapies, including both adoptive cellular therapies (ACTs) for malignancies as well as hematopoietic stem cell transplant protocols to treat nonmalignant conditions. I am the Lead Associate Investigator for an upcoming phase 1/2 ACT trial for acute lymphoblastic leukemia which will open in 2021.

During my pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship through the joint Johns Hopkin/NCI training program, and under the mentorship of Drs. Drew Pardoll and Nicolas Llosa, I sought out a project focused on elucidating immunosuppressive mechanisms present within the tumor microenvironment of metastatic osteosarcoma which may be targeted to permit effective immunotherapy. Through this effort, I gained expertise in a wide array of basic science techniques including tumor processing, immunohistochemistry and digital image analysis, laser-capture microdissection, RNA extraction from tumor tissue, RNA seq, transcriptomic analysis, multiparameter flow cytometry, and intracellular cytokine secretion assays, amongst other methodologies. To solidify my expertise in the management of patients with sarcomas, I undertook a senior fellowship in Pediatric Sarcoma from 2018-2020 at Johns Hopkins. This experience complemented my research interests and enabled me to understand the complexity of patients with relapsed/refractory solid tumors who may present for immunotherapy-based clinical trials.

I provided teaching assistance for intro chemistry lab.