Dr. Ratner is a scientist who studies peripheral nerve tumors that occur in the Neurofibromatosis type 1, NF1. She uses sophisticated methods of gene expression and develops animal and cell culture models to study neurofibroma formation and to test potential neurofibroma therapies.  She was instrumental in efforts which culminated in identification MEK inhibitors as neurofibroma therapeutics, which received FDA approval in 2022. She received her bachelor's degree from Brown University, PhD from Indiana University, Bloomington, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis.  A member of the faculty at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine from 1987 – 2004, she is now a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, University of Cincinnati, where she serves as Program Leader for Cancer Biology/Neural Tumors Program in the Cancer and Blood Disorders Institute and co-Leads the Rasopathy Program.  She holds the Beatrice C. Lampkin Endowed Chair in Cancer Biology. She has served on numerous national and international review panels relevant to neurofibromatosis and has authored over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts. She received a Jacob K. Javits National Institutes of Health Neuroscience Investigator MERIT Award (2014 – 2021) for her work on Schwann cells and Neurofibromatosis.  The Children’s Tumor Foundation awarded her the von Recklinghausen Award 2010, a Team Science Award in 2016, and a Make NF Visible Researcher Award in 2024.