Stephen L. Lessnick, MD, PhD, has joined the faculty at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital as the director of the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases.
As the director, Dr. Lessnick leads a team of pediatric researchers in the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases who are working to expand the understanding of the development of childhood cancer and to transform diagnostic and treatment strategies. He will also foster close collaborations with the clinical team within the Division of Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) at Nationwide Children’s. The research team’s areas of focus include biology and therapy of a broad array of diseases that affect young children, adolescents, and young adults, including neuroblastoma, brain tumors, leukemia, and sarcomas. Dr. Lessnick’s personal research interest is in the area of Ewing sarcoma.
Dr. Lessnick is also a professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. He attended Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, for his undergraduate education and earned his MD and PhD degrees from the University of California in Los Angeles. After completing his internship and residency at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Lessnick finished his pediatric hematology and oncology fellowship at Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He completed his postdoctoral research in their Pediatric Oncology Department, where he studied the transcriptional consequences of the Ewing sarcoma fusion gene. He joined the University of Utah faculty in January 2004 and served as the director of the Center for Children’s Cancer Research at Huntsman Cancer Institute.
“Dr. Lessnick has a proven record of research expertise and leadership and his guidance will help advance research within the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases and care to patients within the division,” said Timothy P. Cripe, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT.
About the Division of Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) at Nationwide Children’s
The Division of Hematology/Oncology/Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital treats patients with any one of a full array of blood disorders, cancers, immunodeficiency disorders, bone marrow failure syndromes and inherited metabolic storage diseases. Our clinical team oversees the comprehensive evaluation, multidisciplinary diagnosis, treatment and long-term management and services of children, adolescents and young adults with blood disorders and cancer as well as other diseases treated by cellular therapies.
Note to the editors: Dr. Lessnick is a resident of Bexley, OH 43209