Newswise — Jeffery Auletta, MD, recently was appointed a physician in Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) and also in Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr. Auletta, board-certified in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Infectious Diseases, comes to Nationwide Children’s from Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to his appointment at Nationwide Children’s, Dr. Auletta will serve as an associate professor of Pediatrics at OSU College of Medicine.

“We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Auletta to Nationwide Children’s Hospital,” said Timothy Cripe, MD, chief of Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Nationwide Children’s and also a professor of pediatrics at The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine. “His expertise will be invaluable to our patients and to our team, as well as expand our clinical services and research for our immunocompromised patients.”

“Our team and Dr. Cripe’s team is fortunate to have the addition of Dr. Auletta to our programs,” said Octavio Ramilo, MD, chief of Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s and a professor of pediatrics at OSU College of Medicine. “We will look to Dr. Auletta to lead our newly established Host Defense and Immunocompromised Infectious Diseases Program.”

As part of Dr. Auletta’s appointment at Nationwide Children’s, and alongside Monica Ardura, DO, a physician in Infectious Diseases, he will serve as director of the Host Defense and Immunocompromised Infectious Diseases (HDIID) Program at the hospital. Dr. Auletta will oversee program logistics and development, and will provide scientific leadership fostering collaborations with partner services. The HDIID Program is a collaborative and multidisciplinary effort between Hematology/Oncology/BMT and Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s which will encompass both a clinical service and a research framework for immunocompromised patients. The clinical program will include both inpatient and outpatient services with an emphasis on oncology, bone marrow transplant and genetically immunodeficient patients. Projects of the program may involve investigations into the microbiome, post-transplant immune reconstitution, immune response to novel therapeutics, and testing of immune-mediated therapies and novel antimicrobials.

Dr. Auletta completed his fellowship in both Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Pediatric Infectious Diseases (2003) and his residency and internship in Pediatrics (1999 and 1997, respectively) at University Hospitals and Case Medical Center/Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. He earned his doctor of medicine from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (1996) and his bachelor of arts from Northwestern University (1992).

Dr. Auletta is a member of several professional organizations, including the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT), and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). He has published a number of peer-reviewed manuscripts and has received recognition for his care of children with cancer in Northeast Ohio by the American Red Cross of Greater Cleveland and Crain’s Cleveland Business.

He was recently appointed Co-Chair for the Infection and Immune Reconstitution Working Committee of the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). This position is a five-year, non-renewable term that becomes effective March 1, 2013. Dr. Auletta also recently completed a term on the Scientific Committee on Blood Disorders in Childhood of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

Dr. Auletta is married to his wife, Julianne, and has four children, Samuel, Benjamin, Zachary and Carlye.

The Division Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Nationwide Children’s Hospital treats a full array of blood disorders, cancers, immune-deficiency disorders, bone marrow failure syndromes and inherited metabolic storage diseases. In addition to treatment, it is committed to advancing both basic and clinical research in these areas. The division maintains active membership in the Children’s Oncology Group, the Therapeutic Advances in Childhood Leukemia Consoritum, the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium, and is a research member of the International Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry. Hematology/Oncology/BMT works hand-in-hand with the Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases, directed by Peter Houghton, PhD, to expand the understanding of childhood cancer and to improve strategies for its diagnosis and treatment.

The Division of Infectious Diseases at Nationwide Children’s Hospital provides expertise in diagnosis and management for children with all types of acute and chronic infections, or immunodeficiency disorders. Physicians provide direct care for patients admitted to Nationwide Children’s Specialized Infectious Diseases Unit and care for patients with complicated infectious diseases or immunodeficiency disorders throughout the rest of the hospital in close partnership with the primary care teams. Patients are evaluated as outpatients following referral to the Infectious Diseases Clinic, the Pediatric Tuberculosis Clinic, the Immune Deficiency Clinic and the International Adoption Clinic. The division clinical and translational research programs continue to expand in collaboration with scientists from the Center of Microbial Pathogenesis, the Center for Vaccines and Immunity and the Clinical Microbiology laboratory to offer state of art diagnosis and therapeutic studies.