Yaddanapudi Ravindranath (aa2572)

 Dr Yaddanapudi Ravindranath (Dr Ravi) currently is a Professor of Pediatrics, holds the Georgie Ginopolis Chair for Pediatric Cancer and Hematology (since January 01). He joined the staff at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan (CHM) and is an Instructor in Pediatrics at Wayne State University (WSU) School of Medicine in July1971 and served as co-director of the Division of Hematology/Oncology from 1991 to 2011. Dr Ravi started the first chelation therapy for blood transfusion associated iron overload in Michigan 1977. In 1987, in collaboration with the group at Harper, he started the Pediatric Bone marrow transplant Program at CHM. At WSU-SOM he was president of the Faculty Senate from 2007-2009. In April 2009, he was admitted to the Wayne State University Academy of Scholars and was president of AOS 2015-16.

Dr Ravi, who hails from Warangal (AP) India, obtained his medical degree M.B.;B.S. from Gandhi Medical School, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India (1964), and Pediatric Residency training at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Pa (1967-69). There after he came to Detroit as Fellow, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Under Dr wolf W Zuelzer at Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI 1(969-71); He joined the faculty at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in July 1971 and the department of pediatrics, Wayne State University in September 1972 where he continues to date.

Dr Ravi is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in childhood cancer and blood diseases. Dr Ravi is most known for his work in childhood leukemias and for development of collaborative programs for improving care of children with cancer in South America, India and the Middle East. His work on the immunologic classification of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (1975,1977, 2008), prevention of central nervous system leukemia (1976), treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (1991, 1996, 2008) and the identification of the high curability of the myeloid leukemia in children with Down Syndrome (1992, 2003, 2008) are considered landmark contributions. His work in using FDG PET imaging to assess treatment response, established this modality as a standard evaluation of bone tumors. Dr Ravi’s lab was the first to define the role of CD14/16 profiling of monocytes in the diagnosis of childhood myeloproliferative disorders (2020).

In 1993, in collaboration with ophthalmologists Treece and Roarty he introduced chemoreduction strategy in the treatment of retinoblastoma, aimed at preservation of vision and avoiding the highly deleterious external beam radiation; in 1995 he and Dr Roarty transported this modality of therapy to India and Egypt.

Aside from the above work in oncology, there are several important contributions in red cell disorders as well-, novel variants of Glycolytic enzymes ( GPI, PKLR, PGK1) and G6PD; in work with his long time research colleague Robert M Johnson from WSU, the pair identified novel spectrin variants in red cell membrane disorders; the studies of oxidant damage in red cells is oft quoted.

Dr Ravi’s personal reputation and his leadership lead to the recognition of the Childhood Cancer Program at the Children’s Hospital as one of the top 30 programs in the country by US News and World Report when such rankings started. He is perennially listed among the Best Doctors in America. He received Distinguished service award from CHM alumni in 2012.

Dr Ravi is well known internationally. AT POG/COG- Dr Ravi Chaired two frontline AML studies and served as Chair of the International Liaison Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group (the largest such organization in the world) from 2003 to Nov 2021 for children with cancer in US and Canada. He is founding member the principal US advisor for GALOP ( Grupo de America Latina de Oncologia Pediatrica- Latin American Pediatric Oncology Group). He also served on the advisory committees for MECCA (the Middle East Childhood Cancer Alliance – an organization with participants from All of the Gulf countries, Turkey and Egypt).

ORCID-ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9577-9624

NCBI-NLM link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1xA9OLI39daQU/bibliography/public/

March 2023: 180 full manuscripts, 30 brief communications ( case reports, letters commentaries) , 20 book chapters; 235 Presentations. H Index 51