Dr. Summers received his B.S. degree from the University of Georgia and his M.D. degree from the Emory University School of Medicine. He went on to complete his residency in Pediatrics at Emory and served an additional year as Chief Resident. He began his fellowship training in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University in July 2015. Dr. Summers works in the research lab of Dr. Douglas Graham studying early T-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ETP-ALL). ETP-ALL is a type of leukemia that is often difficult to treat with currently available chemotherapy. As a result, children with ETP-ALL have high rates of relapse of their leukemia, as well as poorer survival rates than children with other types of ALL. MERTK is a protein that is found on the surface of leukemia cells. Recently, Dr. Graham's lab developed a new medicine that has few toxic side-effects and can be used to kill leukemia cells that have MERTK. Dr. Summers’ research aims to determine whether this new medicine could be used to more effectively treat children with ETP-ALL, leading to improved outcomes and better quality of life.