Hematology, Oncology and BMT Physician Team

Thomas G. Gross, MD, PhD
Dr. Gross is the Chief of the Section of Hematology/Oncology/ Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a member of the Center of Childhood Cancer Research at Nationwide Children’s Research Institute and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. He serves on the Institutional Review Board and Clinical Research Scientific Council and is a member of the Pediatric Oncology and Viral Oncogenesis Program at the NCIdesignated Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Ohio State University. His clinical interests are BMT and the treatment of cancers in immunocompromised patients, such as post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD). His research interests are focused on transplant and tumor immunology. He is the Principal Investigator for the PTLD clinical trial in the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), and is the Chair of the Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) Disease Committee in COG. Dr. Gross is co-investigator on several NIH-funded clinical studies in transplantation and NHL. He serves on the Pediatric Cancer Editorial Board for the Physician Data Query at the National Cancer Institute, on the Board of Trustees of the National Childhood Cancer Foundation and the Board of Directors of the Israel Penn International Transplant Tumor Registry. He is a member of several committees for the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium, Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, International Pediatric Transplantation Association, American Society of Transplantation, as well as scientific advisory committees for several pharmaceutical companies.

Rajinder Pal Singh Bajwa, MD
Dr. Bajwa is a member of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital within the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Nationwide Children's Hospital and an an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His research interests include Polyarteritis nodosa, Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator for treatment of hepatic veno-occlusive disease following bone marrow transplantation in children and increased urinary copper excretion following cirrhosis.

Carol A. Blanchong, MD

Dr. Blanchong is a board certified Pediatric Hematologist/Oncologist in the Division of Hematology/Oncology and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her clinical interests include thrombophilia and thrombocytopenia, with clinical research focusing on immunogentetics of ITP, H. pylori infection and ITP, comparison of PFA-100 to bleeding time.

Bryce A. Kerlin, MD
Dr. Kerlin is the Director of the Hemophilia and Bleeding Disorder Program for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center, a member of the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His research interests include the epidemiology and treatment of thrombosis and bleeding disorders as well as the interaction between the coagulation system and innate immunity. He is the principle investigator for a national thromboembolism registry and institutional principle investigator for several other national hemophilia treatment studies.

Laura Martin, MD

Dr. Martin is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her clinical interests include general pediatric hematology/oncology, cancer survivorship and palliative care. Her research interests include the role of glycans in solid tumor and lymphocyte biology.

Joel Mayerson, MD
Dr. Mayerson is the Co-Director of the Bone Sarcoma Clinic at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Director of Musculoskeletal Oncology at The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, and an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His clinical interests include adult and pediatric musculoskeletal oncology.

Sarah O’Brien, MD

Dr. O’Brien is a practicing pediatric hematologist in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Hemostasis and Thrombosis Center, an investigator in the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice at Nationwide Children’s Research Institute and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her research interests involve the use of health services research techniques to improve decision-making in the field of pediatric thrombosis. Current research projects include the development of a decision analysis model to address the health effects and costs of universal screening for hereditary thrombophilia in children with deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and examining physician decision-making in the use of DVT prophylaxis for pediatric and adolescent trauma patients.

Randal S. Olshefski, MD

Dr. Olshefski is a member of the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His clinical interest is the treatment of children and adolescents with primary benign and malignant brain tumors. His clinical research activities focus on clinical trials for treatment of brain tumors in children. Dr. Olshefski also has an interest in the treatment of patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH). He is the institutional investigator for several international clinical trials in the treatment of LCH.

Daniel Pietryga, MD
Dr. Pietryga has been appointed Director of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. His clinical and research interests include cord blood transplantation, mesenchymal stem cells, graft versus host disease, immune reconstitution and transplantation of patients with immunodeficiencies and metabolic diseases. Prior to joining the Section of Hematology/Oncology & BMT, he was Director of the Pediatric Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation Program at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Human Development at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Mark A. Ranalli, MD

Dr. Ranalli is an attending physician in the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Ranalli serves as medical director of the Comprehensive Hemoglobinopathy Center at Children’s and oversees the Embryonal Tumor Program. His clinical and academic interests include: cardiopulmonary and cerebrovascular complications in sickle cell anemia; the treatment of neuroblastoma, primary renal tumors, and germ cell malignancies; and the use of novel therapies for >refractory malignancies. Dr. Ranalli is a member of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center Institutional Review Board. He serves as the institutional principle investigator for national clinical trials investigating the natural history of iron overload and the management of silent cerebral infarcts in children and young adults with sickle cell anemia.

Melissa M. Rhodes, MD
Dr. Rhodes is the Director of the Pediatric Sickle Cell Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her clinical and research interests are general hematology/oncology, sickle cell anemia and erythropoiesis.  Prior to joining the Section of Hematology/Oncology & BMT, she was Director of the Pediatric Sickle Cell Center at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Melissa J. Rose, DO

Dr. Rose is a practicing pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.  Her clinical interests are general hematology/oncology, with particular interests in hemostasis and thrombosis, as well as bone marrow failure syndromes.  She collaborates with the Department of Neurology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital to evaluate and care for children who have had strokes.  Her research interests involve assessing risks and possible preventative treatment for thrombosis in children with diabetes.

Frederick B Ruymann, MD
Dr. Ruymann is the former Director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Ruymann’s major clinical research interests relate to the treatment of childhood soft tissue sarcomas, acute myelocytic leukemia and bleeding disorders. He was a member of the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study Committee for 22 years. He is internationally recognized as an expert on soft tissue sarcomas. Dr. Ruymann has served as the Pediatric Editor of Current Oncology Reports. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and abstracts in the pediatric literature. Presently, he is the Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group Membership Committee.

Sandeep Soni, MD

Dr. Soni is a member of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital within the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. He is an active member of American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplant, Pediatric Blood & Marrow Consortium and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Committee of Children’s Oncology Group. His research interests include myeloablative and non-myeloablative conditioning regimens for BMT and design of new BMT strategies for neuroblastoma and myeloid leukemias.

Amanda Muench Termuhlen, MD

Dr. Termuhlen is the Associate Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplantation at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her clinical interests are late effects of childhood cancer treatment, blood and marrow transplantation, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and adolescent oncology. Dr. Termuhlen’s research interests are clinical trials for treatment of lymphoma, blood and marrow transplantation and studies of late effects. She is the Principal Investigator for the Children’s Oncology Group, the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and the Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia Consortium. Dr. Termuhlen is the Medical Director of the Survivorship Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and is part of the LIVESTRONG ^TM Survivorship Center of Exellence at the James Cancer Hospital and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition, she is the Women’s Liaison Officer to the American Association of Medical Colleges for The Ohio State University College of Medicine and has an administrative interest in faculty development, especially for women faculty.

Nicholas D. Yeager, MD
Dr. Yeager is an Assistant Hematologist/Oncologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. His clinical interests include bone tumors, soft tissue sarcomas and malignancy in adolescents. He is Director of the Ortho-Oncology Program working collaboratively with Joel Mayerson, MD.