Bline Lab Staff

Katherine Bline, MD
Principal Investigator
Katherine.Bline@NationwideChildrens.org

Katherine E. Bline, MD, is a Pediatric Critical Care Medicine physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a principal investigator in the Center for Microbe and Immunology Research at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute. She is an assistant professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Dr. Bline received her bachelor's of science from the University of Notre Dame and graduated from The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She completed her residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric critical care medicine at Nationwide Children’s. Dr. Bline has received grant funding from the Thrasher Research Fund, the K12 Pediatric Critical Care and Trauma Scientist Development Program, and a K23 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Dr. Bline’s research focuses on the host immune response to severe lower respiratory tract infections in children, with emphasis on the role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC). The Bline Laboratory uses advanced flow cytometry techniques and cell isolation and co-culture methods to investigate MDSC-driven adaptive immune suppression in children who become critically ill due to respiratory viruses. Dr. Bline also serves as a site investigator for several multi-center studies focusing on critical viral infections, including Overcoming COVID-19 Investigators, RSV Surveillance Registry, Pediatric Intensive Care Influenza Network and the Azithromycin Treatment for RSV-induced Respiratory Failure in Children (ARRC) Trial.

Cristina Tomatis, MD
Clinical Scholar
Cristina.TomatisSouverbielle@NationwideChildrens.org

Cristina Tomatis, MD, is a clinical scholar in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She completed her initial medical training in Peru and Spain, before coming to Nationwide Children's for her pediatric infectious disease fellowship. She joined the faculty in 2020 and as an associate investigator in the Center for Microbe and Immunity Research, and collaborates closely with the Bline Lab. Her research interests are the immune response to vaccines and viral infections in immunocompromised patients and young infants, and vaccine trials.

Sara Mertz
Senior Research Associate
Sara.Mertz@NationwideChildrens.org

Sara is a clinical research program coordinator and lab manager for the Bline Lab. She has worked at Nationwide Children's since 1996 with a focus on respiratory syncytial virus. Her current work focuses on the host immune response to severe lower respiratory tract infections in children, with emphasis on the role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells and maladaptive immune suppression. We collect blood and nasal samples from patents and characterize immune profiles using flow cytometry, cytokine quantitation and single-cell RNA sequencing. Sara earned her bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Michigan.

Alexis Juergensen, DO
Fellow, Infectious Disease
Alexis.Juergensen@NationwideChildrens.org

Alexis Juergensen, DO, attended medical school at Ohio University before completing pediatric residency at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She is currently an infectious disease fellow at Nationwide Children’s. Her research background includes work on nasopharyngeal colonization in children with community-acquired pneumonia. She is currently investigating immune cell regulation in children with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in addition to Antimicrobial Stewardship research aimed at optimizing antibiotic use and improving patient outcomes.

Michael Tobias
Research Assistant
Michael.Tobias@NationwideChildrens.org

Michael Tobias is a biology major at The Ohio State University on a pre-medicine track. Since 2024, he has been a member of the Bline Lab in the Center for Microbe and Immunology Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. His skills include subject screening and enrollment, cell isolation and sample processing and storage. Michael has contributed to multiple projects, including investigating the role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells in children with severe lower respiratory tract infections and in children with critical asthma.

Soumya Bajpai
Research Assistant
Soumya.Bajpai@NationwideChildrens.org

Soumya Bajpai is a research assistant at the Bline Lab. She holds two master of science degrees. She earned her first master’s degree in biotechnology from Savitribai Phule Pune University and her second master’s degree in microbiology and Immunology from Wright State University. She has experience working with Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies), where she studied the correlation between COVID 19 infection and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as with mice to study and identify novel calcium channel blockers for erratic calcium signaling in immune cells of patients with Tubular Aggregate Myopathy (TAM). In the Bline lab, Soumya is working to understand the role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in the progression of lower respiratory tract infections in children, and she is working with Dr. Cristina Tomatis to study the impact of vaccination on immune profile of patients suffering with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Morgan Zlotolow, DO
Fellow, Critical Care Medicine
Morgan.Zlotolow2@NationwideChildrens.org