Meet the 2023 Young SIOP awardees - Ryan Summers

Hi there! For the coming weeks, our blog will be dedicated to our Young SIOP Award winners!

Please meet Ryan Summers, YI from the Unites States, in their own words.

I am an Assistant Professor on the Leukemia/Lymphoma team at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. I completed my undergraduate degree in Genetics and Cellular Biology at the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and my medical degree and residency at Emory University School of Medicine, serving an additional year as Chief Resident. I completed my fellowship training at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, during which I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Douglas Graham on a translational project involving small molecule inhibition of the receptor tyrosine kinase MERTK in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and early T-precursor (ETP) ALL. 

My current research focuses on the implementation of precision medicine approaches in pediatric oncology through our institutional precision medicine program, generously supported by the CURE Childhood Cancer Foundation, where I lead the Molecular Tumor Board. I am an active member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) T-ALL task force, through which I have worked to investigate the role of ETP and MRD as prognostic risk factors in T-ALL patients treated on the COG trials AALL0434 and AALL1231. I am also interested in understanding treatment-related adverse events (AEs) in T-ALL and in designing AE-related clinical trial aims.