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
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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