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.

Rebecca Glowinski, MD
MD/PhD Candidate
Rebecca.Glowinski@NationwideChildrens.org

Becca Glowinski, PhD, is an 8th year MD/PhD student (4th year MD student) at The Ohio State University's Medical Scientist Training Program. She completed her bachelors in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and her doctorate in the lab of Drs. Asuncion Mejias and Octavio Ramilo at Nationwide Children's. Her doctoral work focused on pediatric nasal mucosal immunity during respiratory syncytial virus infection, and immune correlates of severe disease. She is currently continuing her work in the Bline Lab, exploring the role of cytokines and immune cell regulation during pediatric RSV infections.

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.

Dylan Brown
Research Assistant
Dylan.Brown@NationwideChildrens.org