Melissa Hines, MD, is an Associate Member (Professor) in the Division of Critical Care at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital with clinical and research interests in immune dysfunction and multiple organ failure in the setting of critical illness in oncology patients. Her interest and research in the oncology population and associated organ dysfunction spans 15 years.
Hines’ early career focus has been on developing expertise and reducing the mortality in patients with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), a syndromic disorder of severe, uncontrolled inflammation. She was the principal investigator of a Phase 1b multi-center trial testing a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of patients with HLH with exploratory aims to further understand the biologic basis of HLH. She received full funding for this work from the Histiocytosis Association, as well as industry funding.
Her emerging expertise in the field has been recognized by invitations to serve in multiple committees for the North American Consortium of Histiocytosis and the Histiocyte Society, as well as invitations to contribute to and/or lead cooperative groups from the American College of Rheumatology, the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology, the Histiocyte Society and the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy to develop consensus guidelines for HLH and HLH-like syndromes, such immune effector cell hemophagocytic syndrome.
As an onco-critical care physician Hines’ work in HLH has given her the unique perspective and expertise in immunology in the setting of critical illness, particularly in oncology patients, and has positioned her to further advance the field of pediatric critical illness and multiple organ failure in hematology and oncology patients. Building upon her extensive experience with HLH and multiple organ failure in oncology patients, she has identified factors associated with critical care mortality in patients with cancer and defined new syndromes and underlying etiologies associated with the development of multiple organ failure that are specific to malignancy or related to its treatment. Hines has completed additional work in collaboration with other leaders in the field to define early onco-critical care phenotypes utilizing machine learning methodologies for early recognition of high-risk patients for selection for future interventional trials. More recently, she became Co-PI of PODIUM-Onc, a multi-national effort with over 140 collaborators to define organ dysfunction criteria specific to pediatric patients with oncologic diagnosis or post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Trial design in pediatric medicine is incredibly difficult due to the rarity of many diseases and inherent heterogeneity in many pediatric disorders. These challenges have led Hines’ drive to learn novel, more robust ways of studying rare diseases, such as HLH, or clinically complex disease, such as organ dysfunction in pediatric oncology patients. Her goal in joining the St. Jude Graduate School’s Clinical Investigations program is to better understand clinical trial design with a focus on comparative efficacy approaches and adaptive trial design.
Hometown: Memphis, TN
Education:
2016 Pediatric Critical Care – University of Carolina at Chapel Hill
2013 Pediatrics – University of Tennessee Health Science Center
2010 Doctor of Medicine – University of Tennessee Health Science Center
2006 BS, Biology – Christian Brothers University
Awards/Honors/Scholarships:
2016 Amal Murarka Pediatric Teaching Award, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Pediatrics
2010 Faculty Medal for Highest Academic Achievement, University of Tennessee
2009 Albright Armstrong Rice Scholarship, University of Tennessee
2009 American Medical Association Scholars Fund, University of Tennessee
2006-08 Alumni Merit Scholarship, University of Tennessee
Publications:
Asperen RMW, Hines MR, Schlapbach LJ, Agulnik A. Tailoring organ dysfunction criteria for critically ill children with cancer. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2025 Apr;9(4):217-219. doi: 10.1016/S2352-4642(24)00305-5. Epub 2025 Feb 12. PMID: 39954681.
Ehl S, von Bahr Greenwood T, Bergsten E, Fischer A, Henter JI, Hines M, Lehmberg K, Janka G, Moshous D, Nichols KE. Is neutralization of IFN-γ sufficient to control inflammation in HLH? Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2021 Mar;68(3). PubMed PMID: 33405364.
Hines M,* Nichols K. HLH or Sepsis: the truth is in the T cells. Blood, 2021 Apr; 137(17).
Nichols K, Hines M. NK cells: Energized yet Exhausted in Adult HLH. Blood. 136 (5): 524–525. 2020. PMID 32730578
Hines M*, Nichols K. Go with the flow: perforin and CD107a in HLH. Blood. 129:2954-2955, 2017.