Alix E. Seif, MD, MPH is a core faculty member of Clinical Futures, an attending physician in both the Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the Hematologic Malignancies sections and holder of the Richard and Sheila Sanford Endowed Chair in Pediatric Oncology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Dr. Seif’s research focuses on how to optimize leukemia therapy by inducing anti-leukemic immune responses and by identifying risk factors for immune-mediated harm. Innate immune stimulation may help children with chemotherapy-resistant leukemia and improve the effectiveness of current treatments by inducing autologous or allogeneic immune responses against cryptic tumor antigens. However, immune activation in the forms of septic shock or graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) can also result in significant toxicities. Dr. Seif studies the effects of septic shock on relapse risk with the goal of developing a controlled innate immune activating therapy. She is also working to identify risk factors for septic shock during leukemia therapy to identify children and hospitals that may benefit from targeted interventions. Finally, she is studying risk factors for GVHD and novel approaches to identify children who would benefit from post-transplant immune activation for relapse prevention.

Dr. Seif received her MD and MPH degrees from Oregon Health Sciences University before coming to CHOP for residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology.

Contact Dr. Seif at seifa@email.chop.edu.

To view Dr. Seif’s peer-reviewed publications, click here.