Dr. Heske is a clinician and physician-scientist with an active translational and clinical research program focused on sarcoma treatments. Her goal is to improve outcomes for patients with pediatric sarcomas by understanding mechanisms of resistance and identifying and evaluating new therapeutic targets.

Major projects in her lab focus on understanding and targeting the biologic vulnerabilities in tumor metabolism and DNA repair in pediatric sarcomas such as Ewing sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma.

In addition to conducting preclinical research, Dr. Heske is invested in translating promising laboratory findings into early-phase clinical trials for young patients with sarcoma. She currently leads a phase I/II trial for patients with rhabdomyosarcoma that uses a promising combination therapy and is developing several additional trials based on work in her lab.