Research Summary

Dr. Karen Rabin is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist who cares for children with leukemia and other blood cancers. Dr. Rabin's research focuses on improving outcomes for children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), with a particular interest in children with Down syndrome and ALL. She holds leadership roles in national ALL clinical trials, and she is involved in numerous research collaborations aimed at improving outcomes in children and adolescents with ALL.

Education

PhD, - Clinical Investigation, Baylor College of Medicine
- Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Stanford/Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
MD, - Medicine, UC San Francisco
- Pediatrics, UC San Francisco

Honors & Awards

  • 2021 COG Young Investigators Committee Award for Excellence in Mentoring
  • 2021 Power of Professionalism Award, Baylor College of Medicine
  • 2012 Fulbright & Jaworski Faculty Education Award for Excellence in Teaching and Evaluation
  • 2005-2009 NCI K12 Faculty Fellowship in Pediatric Oncology Clinical Research

Selected Publications

  1. Harris RD, Shetty PB, Taylor OA, Atkinson EG, Richard MA, Gramatges MM, Zobeck M, Pruitt S, Hughes A, Bernhardt MB, Chavana A, Huynh V, Ludwig K, Klesse L, Heym K, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Chen H, Yu B, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Scheurer ME, Brown AL, REDIAL Consortium. Admixture Mapping Reveals Candidate Regions for Methotrexate Neurotoxicity Susceptibility: A Reducing Disparities in Acute Leukemia Consortium Report. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2026 Aug 03; e70554. View on PubMed
  2. Li AM, Rabin KR, Hitzler JK. How I Approach Treatment of Relapsed Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Patients With Down Syndrome. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2026 Jul 29; e70467. View on PubMed
  3. Fries C, Ji L, Devidas M, Rabin KR, Loh ML, Lee LW, Kirsch IR, Teachey DT, Gupta S, Wood BL, Rau RE. Minimal Residual Disease by High-Throughput Sequencing in Standard Risk-Favorable Pediatric B-Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Blood Adv. 2026 Jun 24. View on PubMed
  4. Lee-Miller CA, Kairalla JA, Hibbitts E, Winick NJ, Rabin KR, Angiolillo A, Schore RJ, Salzer WL, Burke MJ, Loh ML, Raetz EA, Hunger SP, Devidas M, Teachey DT, Gupta S, McNeer JL. Adding induction intrathecal cytarabine in newly diagnosed CNS2 B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia does not improve outcomes. Blood Adv. 2026 Jun 23; 10(12):4184-4192. View on PubMed
  5. Wang'ondu R, Kairalla JA, Shago M, Angiolillo AL, Breidenbach H, Burke MJ, Carroll AJ, Rabin KR, Salzer WL, Schore RJ, Wang C, Hunger SP, Teachey DT, Raetz EA, Loh ML, Davis KL, Rau RE. Chromosome 15q deletions confer inferior outcomes among children with ETV6::RUNX1 B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood Adv. 2026 Jun 23; 10(12):4109-4112. View on PubMed
  6. Kim JJ, Brown AL, Gramatges MM, Hoang T, Sok P, Garcia-Morales V, Taylor OA, Huynh V, Ludwig K, Klesse LJ, Heym KM, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Bernhardt MB, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Scheurer ME, Zobeck M. Hyperleukocytosis and outcomes in pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A report from the REDIAL Consortium. medRxiv. 2026 Jun 19. View on PubMed
  7. Li AM, Aftandilian C, Annesley C, Colace S, Faulk KE, Goldman JW, Guest E, Hayani A, Ho R, Jabbour E, Khanna-Farber A, Kyono W, Leger K, Maloney K, McCall D, Miller T, Pacenta HL, Quigg TC, Rubinstein JD, Schafer E, Rheingold SR, Bhojwani D, O'Brien MM, Rabin KR. Inotuzumab ozogamicin in individuals with Down syndrome and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia. 2026 Jul; 40(7):1542-1546. View on PubMed
  8. Mason EJ, Woodhouse JP, Yi JS, Gramatges MM, Taylor OA, Morales VA, Dhamodharan S, Roberts M, Rabin KR, Lupo PJ, Scheurer ME, Huynh V, Mittelman SD, Orgel E, Brown AL. Ethnic Differences in the Association Between SOD2 rs4880 and Hepatotoxicity in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A Report From the REDIAL Consortium. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2026 Jul; 73(7):e70387. View on PubMed
  9. Kore P, Geris JM, Leon-Camarena M, Castellanos MI, Taylor OA, Garcia-Morales V, Brown AL, Sok P, Schraw JM, Huynh V, Ludwig KF, Klesse LJ, Pruitt SL, Hughes AE, Tien K, Heym KM, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Gramatges MM, Atkinson EG, Lupo PJ, Scheurer ME, Rabin KR. Interplay between Genetic Ancestry, Self-reported Race and Ethnicity, and Clinical Factors in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A REDIAL Consortium Report. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2026 May 01; 35(5):710-717. View on PubMed
  10. Bravo WC, Li Y, Miller TP, Getz K, Cao L, Krause E, Ramos M, Lee J, Gramatges MM, Rabin KR, Scheurer M, Aplenc R, Denburg M. Racial, Ethnic, and Neighborhood Disparities in Acute Kidney Injury in Pediatric Acute Leukemia. Cancer Med. 2026 May; 15(5):e71937. View on PubMed
  11. Tape S, Winter S, Miller L, Hilgers M, Hitzler J, Rabin KR, Gossai N. T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma in a Child With Trisomy 21: A Unique Case Demonstrates the Need for Malleability in Therapy. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2026 Jun; 73(6):e70256. View on PubMed
  12. Mason EJ, Schraw JM, Woodhouse JP, Gramatges MM, Williams KJ, Chen B, Harrell MB, Taylor OA, Scheurer ME, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Yi JS, Huynh V, Mittelman SD, Orgel E, Brown A. Lipidomic profiles associated with treatment related hepatotoxicity in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Support Care Cancer. 2026 Feb 17; 34(3):209. View on PubMed
  13. Chavana AN, Mason EJ, Woodhouse JP, Taylor OA, Gramatges MM, Yi JS, Pruitt S, Bernhardt MB, Ludwig K, Klesse L, Heym K, Griffin T, Roberts M, Erana R, Bernini JC, Zhu H, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Scheurer ME, Mittelman SD, Huynh V, Orgel E, Brown AL. Incidence and outcomes of treatment-associated hepatotoxicity during pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia induction therapy: a Reducing Ethnic Disparities in Acute Leukemia (REDIAL) Consortium report. Haematologica. 2026 Jul 01; 111(7):2435-2439. View on PubMed
  14. Hsu CJ, Schraw JM, Rasmussen SA, Chambers TM, Desrosiers TA, Huff CD, Janitz AE, Kirby RS, Nestoridi E, Nembhard WN, Salemi JL, Shumate C, Tanner JP, Yazdy MM, Scheurer ME, Rabin KR, Lupo PJ. Structural birth defects and leukemia risk in children with Down syndrome. Sci Rep. 2025 Dec 11; 16(1):1741. View on PubMed
  15. Li Z, Yang W, Wu G, Yoshimura S, Mullighan CG, Rosser TC, Leslie-Clarkson EJ, Rabin KR, Lupo PJ, Teachey DT, Yang JJ. The Genomic Architecture of Human DNA Replication Origins. bioRxiv. 2025 Dec 01. View on PubMed
  16. Mason EJ, Crain AM, Scheurer ME, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Taylor OA, Roberts M, Woodhouse JP, Chavana A, Ludwig K, Klesse L, Heym K, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Gramatges MM, Yi JS, Pruitt SL, Bernhardt MB, Zhu H, Mittelman SD, Huynh V, Orgel E, Schraw JM, Brown AL. An analysis of diagnostic metabolomic profiles associated with hepatotoxicity during childhood ALL induction therapy. Blood Adv. 2025 Nov 25; 9(22):5802-5810. View on PubMed
  17. Langie J, Chan TF, Yang W, Kang AY, Morimoto L, Stram DO, Mancuso N, Ma X, Metayer C, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Scheurer ME, Wiemels JL, Yang JJ, de Smith AJ, Chiang CWK. The impact of Indigenous American-like ancestry on the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Hispanic/Latino children. HGG Adv. 2026 Jan 15; 7(1):100534. View on PubMed
  18. Gramatges MM, Sanclemente LN, Hall L, Taylor OA, Nuño MM, Bhatia S, Chow EJ, Getz KD, Hitzler JK, Li AM, McCloskey K, Nathan PC, O'Brien MM, Patel S, Verma A, Yarbrough AR, Richard MA, Rosser TC, Jacola LM, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR. A multicenter observational cohort study in survivors of Down Syndrome-associated acute leukemia (ALTE22C1): a report from the Children's Oncology Group. BMC Cancer. 2025 Oct 20; 25(1):1611. View on PubMed
  19. Li Z, Yang W, Wu G, Chang TC, Cheng Z, Devidas M, Shago M, Carroll AJ, Heerema NA, Gastier-Foster JM, Wood BL, Sanclemente L, Raetz EA, Hunger SP, Loh ML, Feingold E, Rosser TC, Allen EG, Sherman SL, Rabin KR, Lupo PJ, Yang JJ. Inferring chromosome segregation error stage and crossover in trisomic disorders with application to Down syndrome. Nat Commun. 2025 Jul 09; 16(1):6316. View on PubMed
  20. Vrana C, Zhang M, Rochette M, Alozie M, Oviedo H, Gonzalez A, Sherman J, Zorman B, Sumazin P, Rabin KR, Junco JJ. Efficacy of NAMPT inhibition in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. PLoS One. 2025; 20(6):e0324443. View on PubMed

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