Meet Our Faculty

Bio

Dr. Lucie Turcotte is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Minnesota. She received her MPH in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in 2005, her medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 2007, and her MS in Clinical Research from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in 2015. Dr. Turcotte completed her residency in Pediatrics in 2010 at Seattle Children's Hospital
(University of Washington) in Seattle, WA, and completed her fellowship in Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Bone Marrow Transplant in 2013 at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital. Dr. Turcotte's research has focused on second malignancies and short- and long-term outcomes in pediatric cancer survivors. She has specific clinical interest in childhood leukemias and lymphomas, as well as in histiocytic disorders.

Research Summary

Research Summary/Interests: Short- and long-term outcomes of cancer and hematopoietic cell transplantation therapies. Subsequent malignancies after childhood cancer therapy.

Research Interests

Dr. Turcotte’s research is primarily focused on short- and long-term outcomes of cancer and hematopoietic cell transplantation therapies, and on understanding the biologic underpinnings of cancer etiology and treatment response. She leads the Second Malignancy Working Group within the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study and is the Silo Leader for the Subsequent Malignant Neoplasm and Cancer Screening Task Force for the Children’s Oncology Group Long-Term Follow-Up Guidelines. Dr. Turcotte has received institutional, foundation, and federal funding to investigate novel topics in cancer survivorship with the overarching goal of enhancing the quantity and quality of life among survivors.

Clinical Summary

Clinical Interests:

Clinical Interests: Leukemia, lymphoma, histiocyte disorders

Clinics:

Katie Hageboeck CCRF Clinic
2450 Riverside Avenue, Floor 9
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-365-8100

Research Summary

Our lab is interested in dissecting the role of the microbiome in the development of neural circuits and behaviors in health and neurodevelopmental disorders. We will use interdisciplinary approaches to identify and characterize the mechanisms of interaction between microbes and host neural cells. We will use a longitudinal approach to track and investigate direct and long-term effects of microbially-derived molecules on brain development in utero and early postnatal life, and adult neural circuits. We aim to leverage the microbiome for diagnoses and therapeutic potential in neurodevelopmental disorders.

Bio

John E. Wagner, MD, is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Blood and Marrow Transplant & Cellular Therapy. He is the Founding Director of the new Institute of Cell, Gene and Immunotherapeutics at the University of Minnesota. Co-Director of the Center for Translational Medicine, and holds two endowed chairs—Children's Cancer Research Fund/Hageboeck Family Chair in Childhood Cancer Research, and the University of Minnesota McKnight-Presidential Chair.
Dr. Wagner's research is focused on the development of novel cell therapies for treatment of life threatening diseases. Examples include the development of regulatory T cells that could be used in the treatment of autoimmunity, organ graft rejection as well as graft-versus-host disease, thymic progenitors to repair damaged immune systems, cardiac myoblasts to reverse heart failure, skeletal myoblasts to repair or replace dystrophic muscle fibers in muscular dystrophy, and expansion of the blood-forming stem cell to speed blood and marrow recovery after high doses of chemotherapy and radiation. Dr. Wagner is best known for his pioneering work on the use of placental/cord blood as a source of stem cells for transplantation – a procedure that has now been performed in more than 50,000 patients worldwide.

Research Summary

Dr. Wagner's research has focused on the development of new treatment approaches for life-threatening diseases for which conventional treatments are unsatisfactory. Dr. Wagner is recognized for pioneering the use of double umbilical cord blood transplantation in adults and embryo selection to insure an HLA matched, healthy child ('savior sibling') for another child in need of transplant. He is also a leader in the use of regulatory T cells to prevent rejection and graft versus host disease, expanded blood forming stem cells to speed blood and marrow recovery, novel conditioning regimens to dramatically increase the chance of cure of patients with Fanconi anemia and bone marrow derived stem cells to repair the skin in severely affected children with Epidermolysis Bullosa.

1. Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation in Children and Adults
Ex vivo expansion of hematopoietic stem cells
Double unit transplantation
Non-myeloablative preparative therapies
Co-infusion of T-regulatory cells
Graft vs. Leukemia Effector Therapies

2. Fanconi anemia
Novel preparative therapies
Gene therapy - multipotent adult stem cell
Phenotype-genotype correlations (collaboration with Rockefeller University)
Pathophysiology

3. Multipotent Adult Stem Cells (MAPC) in tissue repair
Translational development/large scale manufacture of MAPC
Evaluation of MAPC therapeutic potential in congenital and acquired disorders

Bio

Dr. Beau Webber is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin- LaCrosse in 2007 with a BS in Cellular and Molecular Biology and conducted his PhD studies at the University of Minnesota where he studied the embryonic development of hematopoietic stem cells. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation program at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Webber developed advanced strategies for genetic modification of human lymphohematopoietic and pluripotent stem cells for cancer immunotherapy and correction of inherited diseases. Dr. Webber joined the Department of Pediatrics Faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2017.

Research Summary

Dr. Webber's laboratory is focused on synergizing genome engineering, stem cell biology, and adoptive cellular therapy to develop novel treatments for genetic disease and cancer. Research projects in the lab currently fall into two broad areas: the application of genome engineering to develop improved cell-based immune and gene therapies, and the development of "bottom-up" cancer models using human pluripotent stem cells. 

Bio

Dr. Brenda Weigel is currently the Director of the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. She is a professor cross-appointed at the University of Minnesota's Cancer Center and the Department of Pediatrics, and the recipient of the Lehman/Children's Cancer Research Fund Endowed Chair in Pediatric Cancer. She is also the Co-Director of the Sarcoma Program for the Masonic Cancer Center, and an Associate Director of the Cancer Experimental Therapeutics Initiative for the Masonic Cancer Center.

Dr. Weigel received her medical degree from MacMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and did her residency in Pediatrics at the University of Western Ontario. She came to the University of Minnesota in 1996 to do a Fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant. During her four-year fellowship, Dr. Weigel worked in the lab of Dr. Bruce Blazar and developed a murine model of rhabdomyosarcoma.

Clinical Summary

Sarcomas; developmental therapeutics; leukemias

Bio

Dr. Anne White is a newborn ICU doctor who enjoys taking care of newborns and their families. She is from Ohio and completed her medical training there prior to her recent move to the University of Minnesota. She is excited to be here!

Dr. White's academic work is aimed at decreasing neonatal infections locally as well as in low-resource settings. She has long standing interest in global health with more than a decade of experience and has worked with partners in Kenya and Malawi to develop infection control strategies to reduce neonatal infections.

Research Summary

Neonatal infections, infection control, global health

Clinical Summary

Genetics; Phenylketonuria; Inborn errors of metabolism

Bio

Lindsay A. Williams completed her PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of Epidemiology in 2017. Her dissertation work characterized etiologic differences in the histologic and molecular subtypes of breast cancer with respect to reproductive risk factors. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota where she focused on identifying etiologic differences in histologic and molecular subtypes of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and germ cell tumors. Her current research centers on identifying sex differences in childhood cancer risk, incidence, and survival. Specifically, she is studying sex differences in genetic risk factors for a number of childhood cancer types. She also studies the epidemiology and genetics of pediatric brain tumors.

Bio

Dr. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Minnesota. Prior to coming to the University of Minnesota, Dr. Williams received an MS in Pathology in 2005, an MD in 2011, and completed Pediatrics residency in 2014, all at the University of Iowa. Dr. Williams completed a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant in 2017 here at the University of Minnesota. During her fellowship, she completed post-doctoral research with Dr. Michael Verneris where she worked on characterizing the presence T cell exhaustion in the peripheral blood of AML patients undergoing haploidentical NK cell adoptive therapy and in the bone marrow of patients with relapsed/refractory leukemia undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

Dr. Williams is currently performing research under the mentorship of Dr. Bruce Blazar. Her current project is focused on investigating transcriptional regulators of T cell differentiation that can be manipulated in induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to produce longer acting and more potent cytotoxic T cells for cellular therapy.

Bio

Dr. Rachel E. Witt is an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics. She is from Northwestern Wisconsin originally, spent significant time abroad while growing up, and was delighted to return to this region in 2022. Dr. Witt is a neonatologist, and she cares for critically ill infants and their families in the neonatal intensive care unit. She is also the Pathway Build Lead for the Urban Community Health Pathway, which is part of the new University of Minnesota Medical School curriculum focused on health disparities and equity. Her research area is in perinatal health services, with special focus on the impact of racism on neonatal intensive care.

Bio

Dr. Brianna Yund is a Pediatric Neuropsychologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee following completion of a predoctoral clinical internship in pediatric neuropsychology and pediatric psychology at the University of Minnesota Medical School.She subsequently completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
In her clinical work, Dr. Yund conducts neuropsychological evaluations for individuals ranging in age from infancy to young adulthood with complex medical conditions (e.g., congenital heart disease, seizures, brain tumors) and various genetic disorders associated with central nervous system dysfunction. She also has an interest in neurodevelopmental screening of young children from high-risk clinical populations, including infants and toddlers who required care in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU).
Dr. Yund’s research focuses on theneurocognitive and behavioral development in children with rare genetic disorders and other complex medical conditions. She is particularly interested in early identification and characterization of neurocognitive dysfunction in the preschool and early childhood years. Dr. Yund is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA)/Division 40, the International Neuropsychological Society (INS), and the Minnesota Psychological Association (MPA).

Bio

Dr. Michael Zaiken is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy. Dr. Zaiken completed his graduate training at the University of Minnesota in the Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology, and Genetics program under the advisement of Dr. Bruce R. Blazar in 2020. He continued on in the laboratory of Dr. Blazar for post-doctoral training focusing on bioinformatics and joined the Department of Pediatrics as faculty in 2023.

Research Summary

Dr. Zaiken’s current research is focused on the application of novel bioinformatic analyses to the treatment of graft vs host disease (GVHD). This primarily focuses on the development of analytics pipelines for deciphering complex ‘omics’ datasets, with an emphasis on single-cell RNA sequencing and spatialomics data. Dr. Zaiken’s long term goal is to use these novel tools to improve understanding of transcriptional regulatory control of immune-malignancies including GVHD, as well as leveraging bioinformatics tools to improve the development of advanced cellular therapies.