Dr. Ramon Sanchez

Dr. Christine Pratilas is a pediatric medical oncologist at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Professor of Oncology, Pediatrics & Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She joined the Hopkins pediatric sarcoma team in 2014. Dr. Pratilas received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Drew University in New Jersey and her medical degree from UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (now Rutgers University), where she also completed her internship and residency from 1999 to 2002. From 2002 to 2005 she was a fellow in hematology and oncology in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) Department of Pediatrics, and in the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center. She was a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Neal Rosen’s Molecular Oncogenesis Laboratory at MSKCC. From 2006 to 2014 she was attending in Pediatric Oncology at MSKCC, specializing in developmental therapeutics & sarcoma. She has been the director of the pediatric sarcoma program at Hopkins since 2018. Dr. Pratilas focuses her research on cancer-associated pathways and signal transduction, which involves figuring out how a cell’s internal molecular pathways work, and how those pathways can be molecularly controlled. This knowledge is the basis for developing promising new molecularly targeted cancer therapies, which is the focus of Dr. Pratilas’s research. Among her important scientific contributions is advancing our understanding of how certain proteins that can be mutated in cancer, known as RAF kinases (specifically BRAF), affect a cancer cell’s behavior. The research in Dr. Pratilas' laboratory is focused on RAS signal transduction pathways, concentrating on pediatric sarcomas such as rhabdomyosarcoma and malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, in order to develop novel therapeutics for children with these tumors. Dr. Pratilas is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). Her top areas of expertise are Malignant Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor, Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), Neurofibromatosis, Adult Soft Tissue Sarcoma, and Osteotomy.

Roger Packer is a Neurologist and a Pediatrics provider in Washington, Washington, D.c.. Dr. Packer is rated as an Elite provider by MediFind in the treatment of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). His top areas of expertise are Brain Tumor, Diffuse Midline Glioma H3 K27M-Mutant, Medulloblastoma, and Gliomatosis Cerebri.

Dr. Ahlawat earned a Bachelor of Arts with magna cum laude at New York University. She completed both her Medical Degree as well as residency training in diagnostic radiology at Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, NJ. Dr. Ahlawat completed her Pediatric Radiology Fellowship at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC and went on to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD to do a Fellowship in musculoskeletal radiology. After completion of her fellowship, Dr. Ahlawat joined as faculty in the Diagnostic Division of the department of Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Radiology and Radiological Science. Dr. Ahlawat’s expertise is Diagnostic Radiology with additional training in pediatric and musculoskeletal radiology. Dr. Ahlawat specializes in high resolution magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of peripheral nerves, specifically detection and characterization of peripheral nerve injury; MR imaging of peripheral nerve tumors and peripheral nerve tumor syndromes; whole body MR imaging in the setting of peripheral nerve tumor syndromes; and advanced MR techniques such as quantitative diffusion weighted imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient mapping in characterization of bone and soft tissue tumors. Dr. Shivani Ahlawat also serves as the Director of the Musculoskeletal Fellowship Program. Dr. Ahlawat is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). Her top areas of expertise are Schwannomatosis, Neurofibromatosis, Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1), and Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2).