Within Sanofi's Genomics Medicine Unit, I lead a fully integrated team of scientists to realize the full potential of the intersection of non-viral gene therapy and genome engineering. The Boston-Area based team is made up of experts from chemistry, nanoparticle formulation, RNA sciences, analytics, protein biochemistry, cell biology and genomics who all work on a broad portfolio of projects in collaboration with Oncology, Immunology & Inflammation, Rare Blood and Rare Disease Therapeutic Areas.Our current portfolio includes programs on in vivo T cell, HSC and tissue targeting with lipid nano particles delivering a diverse set of cargos as well as ex vivo NK cell engineering.

Within Sanofi's Genomics Medicine Unit, I led a team of scientists focused on using genome engineering to treat and cure rare genetic disease, and malignancy through cell therapy. Our cross functional team has expertise in cell biology, genetics, next generation sequencing, receptor engineering and RNA sciences.

My graduate thesis work was on defining a role for MyD88, a molecule traditionally implicated in innate immune signaling, as a critical molecule in T cells, specifically T regulatory cells (Tregs) during the response to allografts. I discovered that while naïve T cells require MyD88 for their survival following activation, MyD88 is surprisingly dispensable for Treg survival. Despite this, mice that lack MyD88 in only their Tregs are resistant to the skin allograft prolonging effects of rapamycin and anti-CD154 in a model where Treg presence is required, suggesting that MyD88-deficient Tregs are functionally-deficient (independent of a defect in cell survival) during the response to alloantigen.During my graduate training, I continued to use my expertise in multi-color (13+ parameters) flow cytometry and cell sorting experiment design and analysis (FlowJo and FACSDiva) to conduct experiments as efficiently as possible. I am proficient in operation of a Beckman Coulter Navios, BD LSR II, BD LSR Fortessa, BD Accuri and FACS Aria II cytometers. I am proficient in the harvest of primary and secondary lymphoid organs as well as enzymatic digestion of skin, brain, spinal cord and gut tissues from mice for analysis of leukocyte populations by flow cytometry, western blot and/or in vitro culture. I have expertise in murine surgery including skin transplantation and lymphadenectomy. I am proficient in immunofluorescence imaging (frozen sections and/or formalin fixed paraffin imbedded) of lymphoid organs, skin, and skin grafts. I am proficient in the isolation (MACs, Easy Sep and/or FACS), adoptive transfer and subsequent tracking of CD4, CD8 and regulatory T cells into T cell deficient (Rag-/-) and lympho-repleat mice (syngeneic and allogeneic). I also trained numerous graduate rotation students and undergraduate students on the above techniques and also helped them advance their scientific presentation and communication skills.

Designed custom 6 laser LSR II analyzer, and tested the instrument with a wide variety of human and murine cell types.Established standardized fluorochrome panels for use by labs associated with the facility ranging from 6 fluorochromes with no compensation to 15-fluorochrome immunophenotyping experiments. These panels were optimized where appropriate on the aforementioned 6 laser instrument, and a 3 laser FACS Canto II. Provided assistance in panel construction, data acquisition, and data analysis using BD FACS Diva and Flow Jo.

Expertise in the operation of BD LSR II (4 Laser, 13 parameter), FACSAria II (3 Laser, 13 parameter) FACScan and FACSCalibur. Provided assistance regarding construction of multi-color analysis and sorting protocols for a wide array of biological applications such as cell proliferation assays, immunophenotyping, cell death assays and cell cycle analysis.Provided assistance in analyzing the above-acquired data in FlowJo analysis software, BD Biosciences FACSDiva analysis software and BD Biosciences Cell Quest analysis software. BD FACSAriaII (cell sorter) operator course completed Summer 2009.