Roberts Lab Staff

Ryan Roberts, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator

Ryan D. Roberts, MD, PhD, is a physician for the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a principal investigator for the Center for Childhood Cancer at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a member of the Translational Therapeutics research program at The James Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Ohio State University.

Dr. Roberts is a graduate of the Medical Scientist Training Program at The Ohio State University and of the Pediatrics Residency and Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and BMT Fellowship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. In 2016, he joined the faculty of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s hospital, building on the research program that he developed as a resident and fellow.

Amy Gross
Project Manager

Amy received both her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Toledo. She is the lab manager for Ryan Robert’s lab where their research focuses on tumor-host interactions that promote metastasis in pediatric cancers, with a focus on lung metastasis during osteosarcoma progression. She is also the center lab manager for the Center of Childhood Cancer Research which involves maintaining shared equipment and being a point of contact for people in the center in regard to space, equipment and general lab needs.

Matt Cannon
Senior Bioinformatics Scientist

Matt Cannon is a senior bioinformatics scientist in the Roberts Lab. He received his bachelor’s degree in Biology followed by a doctorate in Pathobiology. He began doing bioinformatics during a postdoc with Dr. David Serre and applied it to projects ranging from malaria, maternal obesity, pathogen surveillance to ecological monitoring. He has extensive expertise analyzing genomic data in many different contexts using data generated by numerous technologies. In the Roberts Lab, Matt helps perform and train others in the analysis of genomic data with the goal of understanding how metastasis occurs and persists in osteosarcoma.

Matthew Gust
Bioinformatics Analyst

Matthew received his bachelor’s degree in statistics from The Ohio State University in May of 2023. His work focuses on leveraging different ‘omics technologies – most commonly transcriptomics – at the single cell level to support the Roberts Lab’s research in Osteosarcoma metastasis.

Fatemeh Yazarlou
Postdoctoral Scientist

Fatemeh is a postdoctoral scientist at the Center for Childhood Cancer. She received her doctorate in Medical Genetics from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. As a rare bone malignancy, osteosarcoma primarily affects children and adolescents, with the lung as the major metastatic site. With regard to the latest findings of the lab, her current research focuses on understanding how metastasis-initiating cells facilitate the colonization of rapidly proliferating upcoming tumor cells into the pre metastatic niche using cell culture, animal models and single cell sequencing approaches.

Lindsay Ryan
Research Associate

Lindsay Ryan received her bachelor’s degree in Zoology from The Ohio State University. Lindsay is part of the Animal Tumor Core where she creates an inventory of patient derived tumor samples to be shared with researchers within Nationwide Children's Hospital and collaborators at other institutions. She provides technical support and assistance to researchers throughout the Center for Childhood Cancer.

Melissa Sammons
Research Associate

Melissa Sammons, BS, RVT, LATG, is a research associate with the primary responsibility of heading up animal studies for the Roberts Lab, as well as other collaborators within the Center for Childhood Cancer. She started her career at Nationwide Children’s Hospital working in the vivarium and is well-versed in many mouse techniques, including but not limited to tail vein injections, tumor implantation, drug administration via various routes, tumor measuring, and whole mouse imaging. Melissa has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from David Lipscomb University and graduated summa cum laude from Columbus State Community College in the field of Veterinary Technology.

Kelly Gutpell, MBBCh, PhD
Clinical Fellow – Hematology/Oncology/BMT

Kelly received her bachelor’s degree in Medical Science at Western University in Ontario, Canada. She completed her doctorate at the same institution supervised by Dr. Lisa Hoffman, studying vascular therapy in murine models of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. After completing her doctorate, she attended medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland and completed her pediatric residency at the University of Utah. She is currently a fellow in the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology/BMT program here at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and recently joined the Robert’s Lab to start her research years in fellowship. Her work in the lab will focus on targeting metastases in osteosarcoma.

James Reinecke, MD, PhD
Clinical Fellow – NeuroOncology

James Reinecke, MD, PhD, is a neuro-oncology clinical/research fellow in the Division of Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant and Center for Childhood Cancer. Dr. Reinecke received his bachelor of science in Neuroscience from Central Michigan University and his medical and doctoral degrees at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Reinecke’s research is focused on understanding how tumor cell phenotypic heterogeneity and the metastatic microenvironment intersect to drive poor outcomes in aggressive pediatric solid tumors.

Charlie Treinen
Clinical Fellow – Hematology/Oncology/BMT

Charlie is a clinical Pediatric Hematology/Oncology fellow training to care for children with cancer and blood disorders. His research, collaborative with hematologist Dr. Bryce Kerlin, is aimed at identifying how osteosarcoma manipulates the body's coagulation system to survive and metastasize. He received a bachelor's degree in Biology from Loyola University Chicago, obtained a medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, and completed a Pediatrics residency at Nationwide Children's Hospital prior to matching into Hematology/Oncology fellowship. 

Emily Ringwalt
Graduate Student

Emily Ringwalt earned her bachelor of science in Biochemistry from the University of Notre Dame. She is now a doctoral candidate at The Ohio State University in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology graduate program. Emily researches translational mechanisms for targeting pediatric bone sarcomas. Being co-mentored by Drs. Ryan Roberts and Timothy Cripe, her work has focused on the tumor-intrinsic and immune impacts of combinatorial therapies that include oncolytic virotherapy. She leverages single-cell approaches to identify mechanisms of combinatorial synergy and metastatic colonization.

Yogesh Budhathoki
Research Student

Yogesh is a doctoral student enrolled in the Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) Program at The Ohio State University. He obtained his undergraduate degree with a double major in Biology and Chemistry from Berea College in May 2022. Currently, Yogesh is dedicated to constructing a thorough single-cell atlas for osteosarcoma, primarily focusing on facilitating precise cell type identification. His future research interests include exploring the intricacies of genetic and epigenetic alterations contributing to osteosarcoma metastasis and therapy resistance using a blend of wet-bench and computational approaches.

Leyre Jimenez Garcia
Research Student

Leyre Jimenez Garcia is originally from Pamplona, Spain, and recently moved to Columbus to pursue a doctorate degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at The Ohio State University. In the Roberts Lab, we study how primary pediatric solid tumors, with a particular focus on Osteosarcoma, spread to distant tissues and co-opt the new environments to their own advantage. Her current work leverages two aggressive pediatric tumors to understand how malignant cells spread to distal metastatic sites, where they co-opt and aberrantly manipulate host mechanisms within the new environment to promote their survival and evade therapeutic efforts.

Serena-Jenna Rabi
Research Intern

Serena-Jenna Rabi is currently enrolled in the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences College at The Ohio State University as part of the class of 2026. At the end of her undergraduate career, she will earn a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences with a minor in Human Nutrition. Her work in the Roberts Lab primarily involves assisting in pre-clinical mouse studies, laboratory upkeep, and developing conceptual and technical knowledge to apply to her osteosarcoma metastasis-related project. In the future, she plans to complete her degree and attend medical school.