Leadership

Julie Park, MD

NANT Chair

Dr. Julie Park is the Chair of the NANT consortium.  She is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington, and an Associate in Clinical Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  She was the Chair of the COG Neuroblastoma Disease Committee (through 2019)  and is an international leader in translational and clinical research in neuroblastoma, with a focus on early phase clinical trial development of molecular and immune targeted agents. 

Araz Marachelian, MD

NANT Clinical Vice Chair/ Medical Director Operations Center

Dr. Araz Marachelian is the Medical Director of the NANT Operations Center (since late 2010) and was the Assistant Medical Director from 2006-2010. She is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), where she is also the Clinical Director of the neuroblastoma program.  She is an experienced clinical investigator, with a focus on immunotherapy and minimal disease detection.  She is a member of the COG Neuroblastoma Committee, and the Principle Investigator for NANT at CHLA. 

Steve DuBois, MD MS

NANT Translational Vice Chair

Dr. Steve DuBois is an experienced clinical investigator whose role is to provide input on integrating science into NANT clinical trials. Dr. DuBois is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He has chaired multiple NANT clinical trials and is the current Vice Chair of the Children’s Oncology Group Neuroblastoma Disease Committee. 

Yael Mosse, MD

NANT Laboratory Vice Chair

Dr. Mosse is an experienced laboratory and clinical investigator whose role is to provide input on translating pre-clinical work into the development of NANT clinical trials. Dr. Mosse is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. 

Judith Villablanca, MD

NANT Assistant Medical Director Operations Center/NANT Senior Advisor

Dr. Judith Villablanca was the founding Medical Director of the NANT Operations Center (2000-2010) and founding co-Leader of the NANT consortium with Dr. Matthay. She is a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). She is an experienced clinical investigator with a focus on novel therapies for neuroblastoma, and has led multiple trials at CHLA and for both COG and NANT. She is the medical liaison for the NANT Parent Advisory Committee, and the NANT fundraising coordinator. 

Katherine Matthay, MD

NANT Leader Emeritus/NANT Senior Advisor

Dr. Katherine Matthay is the founding co-leader of the NANT consortium. She is Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and Hematology-Oncology at UCSF School of Medicine and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. She is an international leader in translational and clinical research in neuroblastoma.  She was Chair of the Children’s Cancer Group Neuroblastoma Disease Committee for 10 years, and currently serves as Senior Advisor.  She has been a leader in the development of MIBG targeted radiotherapy. 

John Maris, MD

Lead Translational Lab Investigator/PI of Program Project Grant (PPG)

Dr. John Maris is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and holds the Giulio D’Angio Endowed Chair in Neuroblastoma Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He is also an Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute Investigator at Penn.  Dr. Maris is a past Chair of the COG Neuroblastoma Disease Committee and is the Director of the COG Neuroblastoma Molecular Genetics Reference Laboratory.  Dr. Maris is the co-leader of the Stand-Up-2-Cancer/St. Baldrick’s Foundation (SU2C-SBF) Pediatric Cancer Immunogenomics Dream Team. He is an expert in neuroblastoma genetics, cancer genomics, drug development and clinical science.