Children receiving stem cell transplants are admitted to our 20 bed, HEPA filtered west wing of the seventh floor of Norton Children's Hospital. This unit is specially designed to care for high-risk hematology-oncology and stem cell transplant patients.  Care is provided by a dedicated team of pediatric stem cell transplant nurses, nurse practitioners, and physicians. New patient consultations and post-transplant care is provided in a separate pediatric stem cell transplant clinic, which is located in the Outpatient Medical Observation (OMO) Unit on the fourth floor of Norton Hospital.

By participating in research studies performed by the Children's Oncology Group and the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium, as well as University of Louisville transplant physician initiated protocols, our program provides patients with access to a number of cutting-edge research studies. We not only offer a full array of stem cell transplant services, but also a number of novel research studies, including allogeneic stem cell transplant for recurrent solid tumors, adoptive cellular immunotherapy for viral infections post-transplant, cord blood transplantation, and cancer vaccines.

The University of Louisville Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant program at Norton Children’s Hospital offers a variety of support services for our patients and families. The Children’s Hospital Foundation and other fundraising groups help to support the Pediatric Hematology-Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant Programs. These funds help our families directly with the challenges they may face in caring for a child who has received stem cell transplant, as well as supporting our clinical and research programs. In addition, we have a team of dedicated nutritionists, pharmacists, child life specialists, child psychologists, social workers, a chaplain, physical and occupational therapists and a teacher who are available to help you and your child through this difficult time. Short and long-term follow-up care is provided by a multidisciplinary team, including pediatric pulmonology, cardiology, nephrology, endocrinology, ophthalmology, dermatology, as well as other pediatric subspecialties.

The University of Louisville Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation program at Norton Children's Hospital provides high quality, comprehensive services to infants, children, adolescents and young adults whose treatment requires a stem cell transplant. The Stem Cell Transplant Program was established in 1991 to allow patients and their families to receive state of the art care while remaining close to home. The pediatric transplant physicians have many years of experience caring for stem cell transplant patients, and much of your child’s care is provided directly by the attending physician staff and nurse practitioner.  This hands-on approach by our experienced transplant staff results in high-quality care, with potential problems being addressed immediately by staff who appreciate the special needs of transplant patients.  We are accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Hematopoietic Cell Therapy (FACT), are members of the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium and the Children’s Oncology Group.

Types of transplants we offer

Allogeneic Transplants

• Related and unrelated donor marrow
• Cord blood transplantation

Autologous Transplants

Team members

Michael Huang, M.D.

Esther Knapp, M.D., M.B.E.

William T. Tse, M.D., Ph.D.