Translate 2020 Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellows
Rahela Aziz-Bose, MD
Residency: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)
Research interests: Medical education and racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities within cancer survivorship
Rahela majored in molecular and cellular biology at Yale University, where she first developed her interest in working with adolescents through teaching in a community health education program in New Haven. She then taught biology for a year at a boarding school in rural England, followed by a clinical research year in a Queens emergency department. She attended University of Massachusetts Medical School, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and the Gold Humanism Honor Society. At UMass, she founded a health education program for adolescents in juvenile detention facilities. Throughout her Med-Peds combined residency at CHOP and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), she has strengthened her interest in health disparities through various clinical and research projects. She is also a member of the medical education track.
Yoav Binenbaum, MD, PhD
Residency: Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel
Research interests: Myeloid cells in the cancer microenvironment, chemotherapy resistance, and bone sarcomas
Yoav received his MD at Tel Aviv University School of Medicine. He completed his PhD in the Technion Institute of Technology under the mentorship of Professor Ziv Gil, where he characterized a mechanism of macrophage-induced chemotherapy resistance involving transfer of miRNAs between cells. In collaboration with the physics department in the Technion, he has developed a device for solid tumor treatment using Cold Atmospheric Plasma, a technology that was transferred for further development in the industry. He also collaborated with the computer science department to develop an artificial-intelligence system for prediction of breast cancer molecular biomarkers from H&E-stained slides. His work led to several publications in journals including Cancer Research, Jama Network Open, and PLOS One. Yoav completed his residency in pediatrics at Tel Aviv Medical Center in the physician-scientist track, where he focused his attention to the role of neutrophil NETosis in the cancer microenvironment of bone sarcomas. Yoav is also a cave explorer and recently introduced a new prophylaxis protocol for tick-borne relapsing fever.
Lev Gorfinkel, MD
Residency: Yale New Haven Hospital
Research interests: Biology and treatment of inherited bone marrow failure syndromes
Lev received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biology at Brandeis University and his medical degree at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In medical school, he was involved in medical education and helped develop a supplementary histopathology curriculum of interactive modules to improve clinical-pathologic correlations. He continued his involvement in medical education as a pediatric resident at Yale New Haven Hospital, where he helped create a formal bedside pediatric physical exam teaching curriculum for medical students during their pediatric clerkship. During residency, Lev worked on deriving a clinical decision model for obtaining peripheral blood cultures in febrile pediatric oncology patients presenting to the emergency department. This work has evolved into a quality improvement project developing a fever and neutropenia clinical pathway for Yale New Haven Hospital. He is interested in bone marrow transplant and presented a poster at the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPHO) Conference on a fludarabine-based reduced intensity conditioning regimen with in-vivo T-cell depletion in patients with Fanconi anemia.
Miki Nishitani, MD
Residency: Comer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago
Research interests: Outcomes in stem cell therapy and medical education
Miki received her undergraduate degree in biology with high distinction at Duke University and later received her medical degree at Virginia Commonwealth University. Prior to medical school, she worked at the NIH Clinical Center, where she helped to broaden the understanding of congenital adrenal hyperplasia through its largest ever national history study under the mentorship of Dr. Deborah Merke. She then completed her residency in pediatrics at the University of Chicago's Comer Children’s Hospital, where she developed a strong interest in medical education through the Medical Education Research, Innovation, Teaching, and Scholarship (MERITS) Program. Her research interests also focused on transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy in those with high risk neuroblastoma who underwent autologous stem cell transplant. Afterwards, she completed her chief residency during which she dedicated time to establishing a primary care curriculum and improving resident scholarship.