Third Year Fellows
 Vanessa Salinas, MD
Dr. Salinas received her medical degree from Catholic University of Santa Maria Medical School in Peru. During her years in medical school, she actively participated in the society of immunology and oncology in her hometown. Her graduation thesis was on early detection of breast cancer. After graduating, Dr. Salinas spent a few years in Peru providing primary care and outreach activities. During this time, she also collaborated in several research projects and co-authored several publications printed in Peruvian medical journals. Next, Dr. Salinas spent one year in Nebraska at Creighton University Medical Center, where she conducted clinical research in the Department of Surgery. During this time, she volunteered for the Health Department of Lincoln-Lancaster County in the division of health promotion and outreach. Here, she educated patients in the promotion of health and disease prevention. Dr. Salinas completed her pediatric residency at Texas Tech University Health Science Center. Her interest in Hematology-Oncology began in medical school where she learned and enjoyed the science of oncology. Her interest in pediatric oncology was cemented during her medical rotations in the pediatric oncology unit, and interactions with this special group of pediatric patients.
Research Project: CSF-1R Blockade Prevents Monocyte Migration and Tumor Progression in High Risk Neuroblastoma
Research Mentor: Robert Seeger, MD
 Josephine Haduong, MD
Dr. Haduong graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Amherst College. She received her MD from the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine and is currently completing her third year of fellowship at the hospital. During her years in medical school, Dr. Haduong spent time volunteering in Africa at the Kamazu Central Hospital. She also spent time in Guatemala through AMSA Salud, where she studied medical Spanish and observed health care first hand in public and private settings. Dr. Haduong completed her residency at the hospital, where she was awarded the “Excellence Award for Going Above and Beyond the Call of Duty” in 2006.
Research Project: The Role of Osteoblastogenesis in Neuroblastoma Bone Metastases
Research Mentor: Yves DeClerck, MD
 Batul Suterwala, MD
Dr. Suterwala received her medical degree from Seth G.S. Medical College and K.E.M. Hospital in Mumbai India. She received the Narayan Paranjape Award in Biochemistry for achieving the highest score among 1,000 medical students in the University of Bombay. After graduation, she worked as a Clinical Pathologist in Babha Hospital (Bandra, India), where she performed CBCs, examined smears for malaria parasites and performed fine needle aspiration cytology. She then took a Research Officer position in Bombay Hospital, where she analyzed the mortality and neurological morbidity due to hypertension in the Parsi community. Dr. Suterwala has also spent some time volunteering as a Medical Officer at various camps organized by Saifee Ambulance Society, where she provides medical attention to victims after natural calamites, such as earthquakes and floods. She completed her residency at Children's Hospital of Michigan where she served as a member of the Resident Recruitment Committee
Research Project: Cross-talk Between Thymic Mesenchyme and Epithelium Enhances Thymopoiesis During the Murine Neonatal Period
Research Mentor: Gay Crooks, MD
 Etan Orgel, MD
Dr. Orgel graduated from the University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in the History of Sociology and Science. While in college, he worked on health care reform as a Summer Associate for Congressman Dennis Kucinich. His interest in Hem-Onc began as an undergraduate student when he completed an internship with Dr. Aaron Rausen at the Hassenfeld Children Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at NYU Medical Center. Dr. Orgel received his M.D from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine followed by a pediatric residency at Children's National Medical Center in Washington D.C. In addition to his interest in pediatric oncology, Dr. Orgel has also focused on international underserved populations; he initially trained in parasitology and tropical medicine in Costa Rica and then joined and led medical expeditions to provide primary care to isolated populations in the Himalayan Mountains and in the Peruvian Amazon respectively. Dr. Orgel's specific research interests lie in the area of Cancer Control - a field devoted to reducing the side effects of our treatments while preserving the overarching goal of cure. To this end, his clinical research has focused on nutritional status, reducing infectious morbidity, improving hearing outcomes and on cardiac protection. He plans to continue his career in this field as a physician-scientist in an established academic institution.
Research Project: The Effect of Nutritional Status and Body Composition on Outcome and Morbidity in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Research Mentors: Steven Mittelman, Md. PhD and David Freyer, DO
Second Year Fellows
 Bhakti Mehta, MB, BS, MPH
Dr. Mehta received her medical education at Seth G.S Medical College and KEM Hospital in Mumbai, India. She received an MPH at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2007, where she completed a thesis on the determinants of malnutrition among under-5 children in India. In 2007, Dr. Mehta had two poster presentations where she was first author. She spent time in Uganda during her pediatric residency studying cord care practices among traditional birth attendants in and around Kampala. During Dr. Mehta’s residency rotations at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan, she felt impacted by her interaction with Hematology-Oncology patients and found a special interest in the area of Neuroblastoma. She is currently working in Dr. DeClerck’s lab to study how tumor microenvironment induces epigenetic changes in neuroblastoma. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling and exploring L.A.
Research Project: Role of Inflammatory Cytokines in DNA Methylation and drug resistance in Neuroblastoma
Research Mentors: Yves DeClerck, MD and Peter Jones, MD
 Ashley Sloane Margol, MD
Dr. Margol completed her undergraduate studies from the University of Florida where she received multiple degrees. She then completed her medical degree from Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in 2006 and was awarded the Keck School of Medicine Teaching Award for the Pediatric Clerkship. Dr. Margol conducted clinical research to determine the pharmacokinetics of one antiretroviral when taken in conjunction with an alternate antiretroviral in conjunction with Doctors Without Borders in 2008. In 2010, she travelled to Haiti with the Medishare organization to provide medical relief after the earthquake. Dr. Margol’s resident program unanimously chose her to be Chief Resident for the 2009-2010 academic year. Her interests in pediatric Hematology-Oncology began in the first month of her internship year.
Research Project: Inflammation-related gene expression profiling in medulloblastoma
Research Mentor: Shahab Asgharzadeh, MD
 Waseem Alhushki, MB, BS
Dr. Alhushki graduated from the University of Jordan, Amman in 2005. He developed a passion for pediatric Hematology-Oncology while working at one of the first cancer centers in the Middle East. In 2006, Dr. Alhushki volunteered at Operation Smile, an organization that aims at reaching children all over the world with cleft lip/palate deformities. He joined Children’s Hospital of Michigan in 2007 for his pediatrics residency and in 2008 he was the principal investigator for a research project titled “Microparticles development in vitro and characterized of microparticles in umbilical cord blood samples obtained from premature or intrauterine growth restriction babies.” After graduating he received “The General Pediatric Clinic Outstanding Continuity Clinic Resident Award/ Academic year 2009-2010.” His fellowship research project focuses on the role of weight loss in improving outcome for obese children with acute lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Research Project: Weight loss improves the outcome of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in diet induced obese mice
Research Mentor: Steven Mittelman, MD, PhD
 Rachana Shah, M.B.B.S, MD
Dr. Shah spent her formative years in the Sultanate of Oman. Thereafter, she earned her medical degree in India. Prior to residency, Dr. Shah was actively involved in HIV-related clinical research at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She also worked as a medical advisor/instructor tutoring physicians, at varying levels of training, for the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills examination. She completed residency in Pediatrics from the Maimonides Infants and Children’s Hospital in Brooklyn. During her first year of Pediatric Hematology Oncology fellowship, she developed a clinical interest in Bone and Soft Tissue Tumors. Over the course of the next two years, Dr. Shah is conducting research in Dr. Robert Seeger’s lab.
Research Project: Role of Tumor associated Macrophages in Tumor (Neuroblastoma) Progression
Research Mentor: Robert Seeger, MD
First Year Fellows
 Randall Chan, MD
Dr. Chan graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Molecular Cell Biology and Economics. He went on to receive his medical degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School. Dr. Chan completed his combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency at LAC+USC in 2010 and then served as a pediatric chief resident through 2011. Since the start of his residency training in 2006, Dr. Chan has been first author on a publication and has presented several posters at conferences, including one named “Glossal pemphigus masquerading as carcinoma in a 53 year old woman”, which he presented at the ACP Southern California Region Scientific Meeting in Indiana Wells. He is also fluent in medical Spanish.
 Mammen Puliyel, MD
Dr. Puliyel went to medical school and did his pediatric training in Mumbai, India, and then also completed his residency at Metrohealth Medical Center in Cleveland. His desire to pursue hematology/oncology was influenced by his mentor in pediatric residency. He studied “Red cell alloimmunization in thalassemia and conducted an audit of red cell microcytosis and iron deficiency in pediatric primary care.” During his hematology rotations, he was particularly exposed to a large population of patients with thalassemia major. He is interested in benign hematology especially transfusional iron overload and hemoglobinopathies. Dr. Puliyel has presented several posters to hematology/oncology conferences in India with topics such as “Chronic ITP - do we have the answers?” and “Ataxia Telengiectasia and Malignant Melanoma.”
 Aaron Reitman, MD
Dr. Aaron Reitman received his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in June 2002. He then attended Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine of Midwestern University and graduated in May 2007. Dr. Reitman has received two First Place awards in student competitions: the Annual AOA Research Conference (Orlando, Florida, October 2005) and the Midwestern University Research Day (Midwestern University, May 2005). In 2008, he completed his one year osteopathic internal medicine internship at Swedish Covenant in Chicago. Dr. Reitman’s research experience was at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago on "Neurosurgical procedures on animals, irradiating animals with INTRABEAM, an investigational intraoperative radiosurgical device, retrospective and prospective clinical studies". Dr. Reitman has written several Peer Reviewed Journal Articles/Abstracts, as well as, two poster presentations and one oral presentation, which he presented at the 2009 AAP National Conference & Exhibition in Washington D.C. on "Procalcitonin as a Biomarker for Bacteremia in Febrile Pediatric Neutropenic Patients." Other awards include Best Abstract for Physician-in-training from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Section of Critical Care in October 2009. He also received a Research Grant for $27,500 from Children’s Hospital Central California in June 2009.
 Shira Rosenberg, MD
Dr. Shira Rosenberg attended Williams College, where she majored in psychology and received a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude in 2004. She then attended the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, receiving her Medical Doctor degree in 2008. In 2008, Dr. Rosenberg received the Gold Humanism in Medicine Award, and in 2009 she received the USC Keck School of Medicine, Excellence in Teaching Award, which was awarded by third year medical students. In 2011, Dr. Rosenberg was voted by the hospital's intern class as the senior resident most committed to their education and was thus awarded the Dr. Laura Mabie Teaching Award. Dr. Rosenberg completed her residency at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and has impressed the faculty with her knowledge and dedication to her patients and families.
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