Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Widemann first joined the NCI in 1992 as a pediatric hematology oncology fellow, gained tenure in 2009, and since 2016, serves in her current role at the Center for Cancer Research at NCI, where she oversees an active basic, translational and clinical research program for children and young adults with hematologic and solid malignancies. Her research has been focused on drug development and early clinical trials for children with refractory solid tumors or genetic tumor predisposition syndromes, in particular neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). The work of her research team on NF1 resulted in the first U.S. FDA-approved medical therapy, the MEK inhibitor selumetinib, for children with NF1 and inoperable, symptomatic plexiform neurofibroma.

Dr. Fixler has been with Sinai for more than 20 years. He has a special interest in pediatric palliative care and serves as an attending physician for Gilchrist Kids, a pediatric palliative care program. Dr. Fixler is an active clinical researcher collaborating with colleagues nationally on many trials involving the treatment of sickle cell disease, as well as serving as the Children’s Oncology Group Principal Investigator at Sinai Hospital. He also serves as Vice Chair of the Sinai Hospital Institutional Review Board.

Following completion of her Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (2019–2022), Dr. Haydar joined Children’s National Hospital, where she now serves as research faculty in the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research. She also serves as Program Director of the Cancer Biology Track within GWU’s Institute for Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Haydar leads a laboratory dedicated to advancing cellular immunotherapies for pediatric brain tumors, with a particular focus on engineering chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and developing next-generation immune-based therapies.

Dr. Young Kwok joined the faculty at University of Maryland in 2004 after a residency in Radiation Oncology at the same institution. He previously led the pediatric, CNS and GU clinical and research programs until the Maryland Proton Treatment Center opened in 2016, where he works to develop and lead the Pediatric Radiation Oncology program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Since joining KKI in 2019, Dr. Peterson’s research interests focus on identifying neurocognitive profiles following pediatric oncology treatment, examining neurocognitive and associated neuroanatomical changes following cancer-directed treatment, and delineating risk and neuroprotective factors with respect to neurocognitive outcomes to inform treatment and intervention. She has collaborated across institutions to examine cognitive outcomes following cancer-directed treatments both acutely and in survivorship.

Dr. Pratilas joined the Johns Hopkins pediatric oncology team in 2014, and has served as the director of the Pediatric Sarcoma Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center since 2017. She now serves as the Director of the Division of Pediatric Oncology. Dr. Pratilas’ clinical expertise is in the management of children, adolescents and young adults with sarcomas, with particular research interests in rhabdomyosarcoma and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, and laboratory models to develop novel targeted therapies.

Dr. Toretsky has served in his current post since 2017, after joining its faculty in 2002. Dr. Toretsky actively pursues research that are leading to new and more specific therapies for Ewing sarcoma. Dr. Toretsky co-founded Oncternal Therapeutics, Inc. which recently concluded a clinical trial of TK216, the first small molecule that directly targets the Ewing sarcoma driver EWS-FLI1; TK216 was discovered by Dr. Toretsky’s team and licensed from Georgetown University. Dr. Toretsky continues to be the principal investigator of his NIH-funded laboratory group and maintains a clinical practice of pediatric oncology. He served as Chair of CCF’s Scientific Advisory Board from 2015-2024.

Dr. Üren joined the faculty at Georgetown University in 2002, following a National Cancer Institute fellowship and graduating medical school in Ankara, Turkey. His research program focuses on developing small molecules to target specific protein-protein interactions in pediatric sarcomas. He has 15 patents, some of which are licensed to drug companies. Dr. Üren teaches tumor biology to graduate students and gross anatomy to medical students. He is the Director of the Biacore Molecular Interactions Shared Resource at Georgetown.