Arik Marcell, MD

Dr. Cozumel S. Pruette is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She provides care for children with kidney problems of any type, from microscopic hematuria to kidney transplant recipients. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in biology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Pruette earned a master's degree in neuroscience from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She earned her medical degree with Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois, and completed her internship and residency at Johns Hopkins University, where she was a chief resident. Dr. Pruette went on to complete a fellowship in pediatric nephrology at Johns Hopkins in 2012. As part of her fellowship training, she received a master's degree in clinical epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Pruette’s research is focused on improving self-management, patient engagement, transition of care and medication adherence in patients with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease. She leads the pediatric/young adult transition of care program for the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center. Dr. Pruette is the principal investigator in the development and implementation of a peer-mentoring program for adolescents with kidney transplant. She has established national patient and family advisory councils for the North American Pediatric Renal Trials and Collaborative Studies (NAPRTCS) and for the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) Study. She has been the recipient of numerous research grants, including the KL2 Clinical Research Scholars Award, as well as the Pearl M. Stetler Research Fund Award, multiple awards from the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland, and the NIH NIDDK.

In her first decade as a pediatric oncologist, Dr. Symons already has shown an impressive ability to juggle multiple research projects, in addition to caring for patients.One of Dr. Symons' research pursuits focuses on using a novel immunotherapy approach to treating both solid tumors and hematologic (blood-borne) malignancies. The basis of her work stems from the theory that cancer patients' immune systems should recognize tumor cells as foreign and destroy them. This doesn't happen, theorizes Dr. Symons, because the immune system attacks only those cells it perceives as dangerous—not cancer cells, which it sees simply as foreign. That's where her research comes into play.Evaluating an experimental therapy, Dr. Symons is pairing donor lymphocytes (white blood cells that activate the body's immune system) with chemotherapy to determine if this combination will "awaken" patients' immune systems to the danger of existing cancer cells and, in turn, elicit an immune response.In a separate yet equally compelling research endeavor, Dr. Symons is working to increase the availability of donors for children whose cancer requires bone marrow transplants (BMTs) as a potentially lifesaving treatment. "It can be challenging to find a 'matched' donor," says Dr. Symons, who explains that only about 40 percent of patients who require a BMT find a matched donor. "Sometimes, we don't have the benefit of time, because remissions can be short-lived. But almost all patients have a half-matched donor: a parent, sibling, or child," adds Dr. Symons, who is examining ways to reduce BMT-related complications ordinarily associated with half-matched donors after ablative (high dose) chemotherapy."Like anything else that's new, it will take some time to prove that this is a feasible option that's safe," she says. But she's optimistic. "It has the potential to revolutionize BMT." Dr. Symons knows it's worth the wait. "Seeing the research I do in the lab translate into clinical trials, then seeing patients in these trials survive long term, is incredibly rewarding," she says.