Award Recipients

2024 - 2025

Richard H. Ho, M.D., MSCI & Brianna N. Smith, M.D., M.S

During the 2024-2025 academic year, the Lily’s Garden Research Fund continued to support the research efforts of Richard Ho, M.D., MSCI and Brianna Smith, M.D., M.S. ¬ Dr. 


Ho is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. Ho also serves as the Fellowship Director for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. He provides clinical care for pediatric patients requiring a stem cell transplant and conducts research focused on personalizing the delivery of chemotherapy. Dr. Ho contributes to the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Division's stem cell transplant program and fellowship program and the Department of Pediatrics' efforts in Precision Medicine. ¬ 

Dr. Ho's work in precision oncology has contributed to the increased investigation of pharmacogenomics and is now part of an NIH-funded center in pediatric precision medicine. ¬ 


Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics who specializes in leukemia and lymphoma. She has conducted innovative laboratory research to identify drivers of leukemia and therapeutic targets and has now shifted to the clinical arena, where these discoveries can be translated. She is the site PI for multiple clinical trials and is on the NCCN Pediatric B Cell Lymphoma panel, responsible for developing standards of care. Dr. Smith contributes to the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Division's hematologic malignancies program. ¬ 


Dr. Smith's research on leukemia has contributed to the understanding of leukemia therapy and has set the stage for a new group of drugs that currently have had positive results in a mouse model of leukemia. These drugs are now being used in practice. ¬ 


Below, we are pleased to highlight a few of the publications that were made possible thanks to your generous support of Drs. Ho and Smith’s ongoing research efforts:


Richard Ho ♣ 

  • Dietz M, Chakravarthy R, Rogozinski L, Ho R, Kitko CL, and Gulley S. Cytomegalovirus Prophylaxis with Letermovir in Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Patients Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant.JHOP - August 2024 Vol 14, No 4 - Original Research 
  •  Medwid S, Ho RH, and Kim RB. Uptake Transporters in McQueen, C.A. (Ed.) Comprehensive Toxicology, 4th Edition, Biotransformation, Volume . Oxford, 2025. O


Brianna Smith

  • Ramsey HE, Gorska AE, Smith BN, Monteith AJ, Fuller L, Arrate MP, Savona MR. TLR3 agonism augments CD47 inhibition in acute myeloid leukemia. Haematologica. 2024 Jul 1;109(7):2111-2121. PMID 38152031. 
  • Monteith AJ, Ramsey HE, Silver AJ, Brown D, Greenwood D, Smith BN, Wise AD, Liu J, Olmstead SD, Watke J, Arrate MP, Gorska AE, Fuller L, Locasale JW, Stubbs MC, Rathmell JC, Savona MR. Lactate utilization enables metabolic escape to confer resistance to BET inhibition in acute myeloid leukemia. Cancer Res. 2024 Apr 1;84(7):1101-1114. PMID: 38285895. 
  • Howard GC, Wang J, Rose KL, Jones C, Patel, P, Tsui T, Florian AC, Vlach L, Lorey SL, Grieb BC, Smith BN, Slota MJ, Reynolds EM, Goswami S, Savona MR, Mason FM, Lee T, Fesik SW, Liu Q, Tansey WP. Ribosome subunit attrition and activation of the p53- MDM4 axis dominate the response of MLL-rearranged cancer cells to WDR5 WIN site inhibition. ELife. 2024 Apr 29;12:RP90683. PMID: 38682900. 
  • Smith BN*, Meyer CT*, Wang J, Teuscher K, Grieb B, Howard G, Silver A, Lorey S, Stott G, Moore W, Lee T, Savona MR, Weissmiller A, Liu Q, Quaranta V, Fesik S, Tansey WP. Expanded profiling of WD repeat domain 5 inhibitors reveals actionable strategies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2024 Aug 21;121(35). * authors contributed equally 
  • Yenamandra A, Smith RB, Seegmiller A, Smith BN, Friedman DL, Smith CM. Deregulation and shattering of chromosomal segments containing multiple oncogenic targets in the pathogenesis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified. DNA, 2024 Aug 12;4(3):318-327.
  • Barth M, Xavier AC, Acquazzino M, Armenian S, Audino AN, Blazin L, Bloom D, Bryson W, Davies K, Dillenbeck J, Ding H, Ding Y, DuVall A, Figura N, Galardy PJ, Gibson A, Hanna R, Hayashi R, Lily's Garden Research Fund 3 Lee-Miller C, Mahadeo K, Maloney KW, Marks L, Panigrahi AR, Parker K, Reilly AF, Roshal M, Smith B, Song S, Tellinghuisen AF, Weinstein J, Schonfeld R, Sundar H. NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) for Pediatric Aggressive Mature B-Cell Lymphomas 2.2025. Accessed 4/28/25.

2024

Support is provided for translational and clinical research for Richard Ho MD, MSCI and Brianna Smith MD, MS.

2023

Support is provided for translational and clinical research for Richard Ho MD, MSCI and Brianna Smith MD, MS.

2022

Richard Ho MD, MSCI is studying pharmacogenomics, to better develop personalized medicine approaches. He is an attending physician on our stem cell transplant service and the Director of our fellowship program. Sara Zarnegar-Lumley MD is studying leukemia and is leading clinical trials in acute lymphoblastic and acute myeloid leukemia.

2021

Richard Ho MD, MSCI, Sara Zarnegar-Lumley MD. Kasey Jackson MD, a fellow working under the supervision of Adam Esbenshade MD, MSCI, studied infectious complications in stem cell transplant patients, using a predictive model developed by Dr. Esbenshade. She graduated in 2021 and is now doing a Neuro-Oncology Fellowship at National Children’s Hospital in Washington DC.

2020

Sara Zarnegar-Lumley MD., Peter Hsu MD, MPH, a fellow working under the supervision of Debra Friedman MD, MS studied the implications of the Affordable Care Act on access and cost of oral chemotherapy agents for pediatric cancer. He graduated in 2020 and is faculty at Boston Children’s Hospital in Pediatric Oncology. Saara Kaviany, MD studied primary immune deficiencies and the intersection between immunodeficiency and cancer. She is now faculty at University of Chicago in the stem cell transplant program, developing a focus there in immunodeficiency and cancer. 

2019

Peter Hsu MD, MPH, Saara Kaviany, MD.

2017

Katherine Watson, MD, MSCI, a fellow working under the supervision of Debra Friedman MD, MS studied the impact of health literacy on parent’s ability to give oral chemotherapy correctly. She is faculty in pediatric oncology at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters. Nicholas Richardson, MD, MPH, a fellow working under the supervision of Debra Friedman MD, MS, studied the long-term effects of survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma. He is a researcher at the Federal Drug and Food Administration, studying oncology drugs.

2016

Katherine Watson, MD, MSCI, Nicholas Richardson, MD, MPH. Christa Krupski, MD, a fellow under the supervision of Carrie Kitko MD studied graft versus host disease in stem cell transplant. She is faculty in stem cell transplant at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

2015

Christa Krupski, MD., Patrick Grohar, MD, PhD, studied the biology of Ewing sarcoma. He is now faculty at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

2014

Emmanuel Volanakis, MD studied the biology of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He is now leading our clinical sickle cell program at Vanderbilt. Jaime Libes, MD, under the supervision of Harold Lovvorn, MD (Pediatric Surgery) studied the biology and disparities in Wilms tumor. She is now faculty in pediatric oncology and global oncology at University of Illinois, Peoria.

2013

Jaime Libes, MD.