About
Biography
I obtained my PhD in reproductive immunology at Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands in the lab of Dr. Frans Claas, where I studied decidual T cell responses in healthy human pregnancies. I conducted a postdoctoral fellowship and held an instructor position in Dr. Jack Strominger’s laboratory at the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, where I focused on the molecular mechanisms of immune tolerance by HLA-G+ extravillous trophoblasts.
Currently, I am an assistant professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center within the UC Department of Pediatrics, where I investigate how maternal immune cells at the maternal-fetal interface establish tolerance to fetal antigens while at the same time maintaining immunity to viral and bacterial infections. I have published over 25 peer-reviewed papers in the area of reproductive immunology with a more specific scientific production in the field of immune regulatory mechanisms by HLA-G+ extravillous trophoblasts and decidual regulatory T cells as well as decidual NK cell and decidual effector T cell responses to placental and viral antigens.
PhD: Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, 2004-2008.
Post Doctoral Fellowship: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2009-2013.
Instructor: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2014-2019.
Interests
Pregnancy complications; contribution of placental inflammatory responses to development of spontaneous preterm birth and preeclampsia
Interests
Mechanisms of maternal-fetal immune tolerance and placental immunity in human pregnancy
Research Areas
Immunobiology, Inflammation and Tolerance
Publications
Splicing neoantigen discovery with SNAF reveals shared targets for cancer immunotherapy. Science Translational Medicine. 2024; 16:eade2886.
Antigen-specific decidual CD8+ T cells include distinct effector memory and tissue-resident memory cells. JCI insight. 2023; 8:e171806.
Decidual NK Cells Transfer Granulysin to Selectively Kill Bacteria in Trophoblasts. Cell. 2020; 182:1125-1139.e18.
Three types of HLA-G+ extravillous trophoblasts that have distinct immune regulatory properties. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA. 2020; 117:15772-15777.
Human Term Pregnancy Decidual NK Cells Generate Distinct Cytotoxic Responses. Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 2020; 204:3149-3159.
The Dual Role of HLA-C in Tolerance and Immunity at the Maternal-Fetal Interface. Frontiers in Immunology. 2019; 10:2730.
Three Types of Functional Regulatory T Cells Control T Cell Responses at the Human Maternal-Fetal Interface. Cell Reports. 2019; 27:2537-2547.e5.
Mixed signature of activation and dysfunction allows human decidual CD8+ T cells to provide both tolerance and immunity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA. 2018; 115:385-390.
HLA-G: At the Interface of Maternal-Fetal Tolerance. Trends in Immunology. 2017; 38:272-286.
Expression of KIR2DS1 by decidual natural killer cells increases their ability to control placental HCMV infection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA. 2016; 113:15072-15077.
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