Stephanie Bouley, PhD
Enrolled: 2022
Dartmouth College
Perturbation of signaling networks to identify novel therapeutic targets in NF1
Stephanie Bouley, PhD
Enrolled: 2022 Dartmouth College Dr. Stephanie J. Bouley, Ph.D., is...
Rose De Guzman, PhD
Enrolled: 2021
University at Albany, NY
Rose M. De Guzman is a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Andrea Edlow’s Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. She received her BS in Nutritional Biochemistry at UC Davis, CA and earned her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience at University at Albany, NY. Her scientific passions include nutrition, neuroscience, sex differences, pregnancy/postpartum, and child development.
Her PhD dissertation investigated how sexually dimorphic brain regions involved in maternal and stress circuitries change during the postpartum period. Her postdoctoral research studies the impact of maternal immune activation in pregnancy, including maternal obesity and COVID-19 infection, on fetal brain development and behavior. Her long-term goal is to develop personalized therapeutics, guided by patient-level biology.
Outside of lab, she is the founder of Women in Neuroscience and is involved in organizations that empower students, especially those with similar background of being low SES, first-gen college student, and an immigrant. She believes a diverse scientific community broadens scientific innovation. She also enjoys hiking, mountain biking, cooking, and concert/fashion photography.
Placental macrophages and umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells as a proxy cell type of microglia and a model for the impact of maternal COVID-19 on brain microglial activation
In collaboration with Dr. Andrea Edlow and Dr. Roy H. Perlis, we are using personalized microglial-like cellular models derived from cord blood monocytes to investigate the potential impact of maternal SARS-CoV- 2 exposure on fetal and offspring neurodevelopment. This work dovetails nicely with Dr. Edlow’s R01, examining fetal placental macrophages (Hofbauer cells) as a proxy cell type for fetal brain microglia in the setting of maternal obesity. Both projects are based on the premise that maternal inflammation may have deleterious effects on fetal brain macrophages (microglia). Microglia play a key role in modulating synaptic pruning, neurogenesis, phagocytosis of apoptotic cells, and regulation of synaptic plasticity. They can also be critical mediators of neurodevelopmental morbidity in maternal immune activation. To date, there is no biomarker or model for in utero microglial priming and function that might aid in identifying the neonates and children most vulnerable to neurodevelopmental morbidity, given that fetal and infant microglia remain inaccessible.
We will use umbilical cord blood mononuclear cells to reprogram induced microglial cells and to model phagocytic activity of these cells. Dr. Perlis and his laboratory developed and validated an approach for the transdifferentiation of human microglia-like cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and assaying them with isolated synapses (synaptosomes) derived from neural cultures differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). For this project, however, the cord blood-based method is more rapid and scalable compared to the iPSC microglia method. This proposed method also enables investigation of epigenetic effects otherwise lost in iPSC generation, in addition to recapitulating morphology, transcriptome, and function of microglia.
Rose De Guzman, PhD
University at Albany, NY
Aeron Small, MD
Enrolled: 2022
University of Pennsylvania
Aeron Small is a third-year cardiology fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is originally from Chicago, completed medical school and obtained a master’s degree in translational research at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by residency in internal medicine at Yale. For the P&GM T32 fellowship, Aeron is completing a post-doctoral fellowship in Dr. Pradeep Natarajan’s group with a focus on the genetics of valvular heart disease.
In his free time, Aeron enjoys playing jazz guitar and spending time at home with his wife, son, and two cats.
Genomics, Valvular heart disease, Echocardiography
I am broadly interested in the pathobiology of valvular heart disease. During the T32 program, I hope to leverage my interests in genomics and cardiovascular imaging to better elucidate the functional mechanisms underlying calcific aortic valve disease.
Aeron Small, MD
University of Pennsylvania
Justin Tubbs, PhD
Enrolled: 2022
The University of Hong Kong
Justin Tubbs studied biology and psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, where my interest in psychiatric genetics was sparked through my work with Drs. Jeanne Savage, Amy Adkins, and Danielle Dick. Afterwards, he completed a post-baccalaureate fellowship at the NCCIH, where he contributed to studies examining the psychological and physiological mechanisms of pain and affective touch. Justin’s PhD studies at The University of Hong Kong with Prof. Pak Sham have focused on developing and applying methods for estimating genetic nurture, as well as identifying genetic risk factors for complex traits including depression and psychosis. Justin is looking forward to the next stage of his journey as a T32 fellow in Dr. Jordan Smoller’s lab.
In his free time, he enjoys traveling, cooking, and music.
Leveraging genomics and big health data to advance precision psychiatry
Justin Tubbs, PhD
The University of Hong Kong
The Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) comprises one of the largest and most vibrant hubs of genomic medicine research in the world. The CGM includes 46 faculty collaborating to define the ‘genomic medicine cycle’ – which envisages a genomics community seeking to advance research from basic genomics research to ultimately using genome information for diagnostics and targeted therapeutics. All of our investigators are faculty at Harvard Medical School, and many members of our community are also investigators at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.
