Description of Clinical Expertise

I have clinical expertise in the care of children, adolescents, and young adults with hematologic malignancies, particularly those with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML). My particular clinical interests include integration of comprehensive leukemia genetic data with therapy selection for children with high risk newly-diagnosed and relapsed ALL and AML, CML, and JMML with a focus on precision medicine treatment approaches.

I serve as Chief of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and attend on the inpatient leukemia/lymphoma service and outpatient clinic. I have procedural expertise in bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, lumbar punctures (spinal taps), Ommaya reservoir taps, administration of intrathecal chemotherapy, and skin biopsies for germline testing.

Description of Other Expertise

I am a primary clinical mentor in Hematologic Malignancies for first, second, third, and fourth year pediatric hematology-oncology fellows and closely supervise their patient care in the inpatient and outpatient clinical settings. I also teach and supervise pediatric residents in the inpatient setting.

Description of Research Expertise

My overarching career goal as an academic pediatric oncologist and translational physician-scientist is to develop successful precision medicine therapies for children with high-risk leukemias aimed at decreasing relapse risk, minimizing toxicity, and improving long-term survival. My independent research program focuses upon identification of targeted therapeutic strategies for childhood leukemias via (1) mechanistic interrogation of aberrant signal transduction networks and preclinical testing of kinase and other small molecule inhibitors in genetic subtypes of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML), (2) preclinical testing of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapies for high-risk AML and ALL, and (3) early-phase clinical investigation of targeted inhibitors and cell therapies for children with leukemia and associated correlative biology studies through the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Pediatric Acute Leukemia (LLS PedAL) consortium, and other national and international leukemia/cell therapy consortia. I am also an experienced early-phase clinical trialist and a member of the COG ALL executive committee and relapse subcommittee, the COG Myeloid Diseases executive committee (Vice-Chair of Relapse), and the LLS PedAL executive committee (Clinical Trials Leader).

My laboratory has particular expertise in preclinical evaluation of small molecule inhibitors and CAR T cells in ALL and AML patient-derived xenograft models, as well as in phosphosignaling analyses and measurement of patients’ molecular responses to targeted inhibitors. Successful integration of my laboratory’s bench-based and clinical correlative studies has led to multiple trials testing targeted therapies in children with high-risk leukemias, many of which I also lead or co-lead.

Current Tasian laboratory members:
Camilo Arenas Merizalde, BS (research technician II)
Tommaso Balestra, PhD (post-doctoral fellow)
Diego Bárcenas López, PhD (post-doctoral fellow)
Shubhmita Bhatnagar, PhD (scientist II/lab manager)
Jackson Dardis, BS (research technician II)
Sarah Haines, BS (research technician III)
Anna Mai, MS (research technician III)
Ritul Sharma, PhD (post-doctoral fellow)

CHOP Hematologic Malignancies Program administrative & clinical research team:
Tasleema Patel, BA (program manager)
Maria Mezher, MD (clinical research coordinator)