Laura Klesse, M.D., Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Professor Endowed Title Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care Schools Medical School Departments Pediatrics | Neurological Surgery You have reached the Academic Profile. For more information on the doctor and patient care, please visit the clinical profile. Biography Laura Klesse, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist specializing in neurofibromatosis, and is Co-director of UT Southwestern Medical Center's Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2) program. Dr. Klesse is a Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care and Director of the comprehensive neurofibromatosis program at Children’s Health. After receiving her undergraduate degree with high honors in biological sciences at the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Klesse earned her medical degree and Ph.D. at UT Southwestern. For her Ph.D. and postdoctoral research fellowship, she studied in the laboratory of Luis Parada, Ph.D., a UT Southwestern faculty member and National Academy of Sciences Fellow who leads one of the foremost centers of research into cancers of the nervous system and their relation to genetic disease. Dr. Klesse completed her residency in pediatrics at Children’s Medical Center and performed her fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at UT Southwestern. In addition to her research on neurofibromatosis, she is involved with a number of drug development trials as well as studies focused on some of the psychosocial consequences that patients with neurofibromatosis sometimes experience, such as bullying. Dr. Klesse is a member of the medical advisory board for the Texas Neurofibromatosis Foundation and for Neurofibromatosis Inc. Her professional memberships include the American Society for Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the Society for Neuro-Oncology, and the Children’s Oncology Group. Dr. Klesse was included in D Magazine's Best Doctors list for 2018 and 2022 and its Best Pediatric Specialists list in 2015-2017 and 2020-2021. Education Undergraduate School University of Notre Dame (1992) Medical School UT Southwestern Medical School (2001) Fellowship UT Southwestern Medical Center (2002), Pediatric Hematology/oncology Residency Children's Medical Center Dallas (2005), Pediatrics Fellowship UT Southwestern Medical Center (2008), Pediatric Hematology/oncology Research Interest Neuro-oncology Neurofibromatosis Precision Medicine Publications MEK inhibitor mirdametinib promotes fracture healing in osteofibrous dysplasia RASopathy Khalid AB, Denton K, Paria N, Oxendine I, Wassell M, Cornelia R, Uppuganti S, Nyman JS, Jagadeesh GJ, Ferreira CR, Conway SJ, Hammer RE, Ritter J, Nguyen M, Podeszwa DA, Klesse LJ, Wise CA, Rios JJ The Journal of clinical investigation 2026 May 136 Interplay between Genetic Ancestry, Self-reported Race and Ethnicity, and Clinical Factors in Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: A REDIAL Consortium Report Kore P, Geris JM, Leon-Camarena M, Castellanos MI, Taylor OA, Garcia-Morales V, Brown AL, Sok P, Schraw JM, Huynh V, Ludwig KF, Klesse LJ, Pruitt SL, Hughes AE, Tien K, Heym KM, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Gramatges MM, Atkinson EG, Lupo PJ, Scheurer ME, Rabin KR Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention 2026 May 35 710-717 Neurofibromatosis type 1-plexiform neurofibromas: Integrating treatment across pediatric and adult populations Armstrong AE, Gross AM, Klesse LJ, Rhodes SD, Ahlawat S, Staedtke V, Molina CA, Hirbe AC Neuro-oncology 2026 Apr 28 847-863 Genome-wide association study of childhood B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia reveals novel African ancestry-specific susceptibility loci Im C, Raduski AR, Mills LJ, Bhattarai KR, Mobley RJ, Barnett KR, Lu Z, Liao K, Anderson N, Johnson RA, Langer E, Hooten AJ, Seif AE, Bernt KM, Tsang M, Mamou BA, Gil-de-Gómez L, Wolfson JA, Friedman DN, Shukla N, Klesse LJ, Marcotte EL, Ji L, Dang A, Luo M, Zhong Y, Langie J, Chiang CW, de Smith A, Wiemels JL, DeWan A, Ma X, Metayer C, Wang Z, Nelson HH, Pankratz N, Yang T, Basu S, Turcotte LM, Yang JJ, Savic D, Scheurer ME, Spector LG Nature communications 2025 Dec 16 An analysis of diagnostic metabolomic profiles associated with hepatotoxicity during childhood ALL induction therapy Mason EJ, Crain AM, Scheurer ME, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Taylor OA, Roberts M, Woodhouse JP, Chavana A, Ludwig K, Klesse L, Heym K, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Gramatges MM, Yi JS, Pruitt SL, Bernhardt MB, Zhu H, Mittelman SD, Huynh V, Orgel E, Schraw JM, Brown AL Blood Advances 2025 Nov 9 5802-5810 Psychosocial functioning and determinants of the health-related quality of life in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 and cognitive impairments Author Collaboration tN, Barton B, Wolters PL, Walsh KS, Ullrich NJ, Rosser T, Tonsgard J, Viskochil D, Schorry E, Klesse LJ, Fisher MJ, Gutmann DH, Packer RJ, Korf B, Acosta MT, North KN, Payne JM Journal of Neuro-Oncology 2025 Aug 174 65-76 Prediction of methotrexate neurotoxicity using clinical, sociodemographic, and area-based information in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia Harris RD, Taylor OA, Gramatges MM, Hughes AE, Zobeck M, Pruitt S, Bernhardt MB, Chavana A, Huynh V, Ludwig K, Klesse L, Heym K, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Choi A, Ohno Y, Richard MA, Morrison AC, Chen H, Yu B, Lupo PJ, Rabin KR, Scheurer ME, Brown AL Oncologist 2025 Jun 30 Reply to: Challenges in Assessing Response in Clinical Trials for Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Plexiform Neurofibromas Moertel CL, Hirbe AC, Klesse LJ, Nghiemphu PL, Babovic-Vuksanovic D, Gershon TR Journal of Clinical Oncology 2025 May 43 1844-1846 ReNeu: A Pivotal, Phase IIb Trial of Mirdametinib in Adults and Children With Symptomatic Neurofibromatosis Type 1-Associated Plexiform Neurofibroma Moertel CL, Hirbe AC, Shuhaiber HH, Bielamowicz K, Sidhu A, Viskochil D, Weber MD, Lokku A, Smith LM, Foreman NK, Hajjar FM, McNall-Knapp RY, Weintraub L, Antony R, Franson AT, Meade J, Schiff D, Walbert T, Ambady P, Bota DA, Campen CJ, Kaur G, Klesse LJ, Maraka S, Moots PL, Nevel K, Bornhorst M, Aguilar-Bonilla A, Chagnon S, Dalvi N, Gupta P, Khatib Z, Metrock LK, Nghiemphu PL, Roberts RD, Robison NJ, Sadighi Z, Stapleton S, Babovic-Vuksanovic D, Gershon TR Journal of Clinical Oncology 2025 Feb 43 716-729 Evaluation of methotrexate Pharmacogenomic variation to predict acute neurotoxicity in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia Harris RD, Taylor OA, Gramatges MM, Hughes AE, Zobeck M, Pruitt S, Bernhardt MB, Chavana A, Huynh V, Ludwig K, Klesse L, Heym K, Griffin T, Erana R, Bernini JC, Choi A, Ohno Y, Richard MA, Morrison AC, Chen H, Yu B, Lupo PJ, Rabin K, Scheurer ME, Brown AL Pharmacotherapy 2025 Jan 45 4-11 Results 1-10 of 55 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Honors & Awards Dr. George Buchanan Fellow Teaching AwardPediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Training Program (2017-2017) Best Pediatric Specialists/Doctors in DallasD Magazine (2015-2023) Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care (2009) Professional Associations/Affiliations American Society for Clinical Oncology American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Society for Neuro-Oncology
