We are thrilled to announce that two Immunobiology PhD students, Tomomi Yoshida, BS, and Sarah Ohashi, BA, were recently awarded the prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Awards (F31) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). F31 funding awards from the NIH are designed to help promising predoctoral students develop into productive, independent research scientists through mentored research training while conducting dissertation research.
Tomomi is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the laboratories of David Hafler, MD, FANA, William S. and Lois Stiles Edgerly Professor of Neurology, Professor of Immunobiology, Chair, Neurology, and Andrew Wang, MD/PhD, AB, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine (Rheumatology).
Sarah is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the laboratories of Kevin O'Connor, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology and of Immunobiology and Lauren Sansing, MD, MS, FAHA, FANA, Professor of Neurology, Vice-Chair of Faculty Affairs, Neurology.
Tomomi's research focuses on the properties and function of a rare subset of T cells that exist in the healthy brain. Notably, she found that these T cells share ontogeny from those primed in the gastrointestinal tract. Her work challenges the notion of immune privilege in the brain and establishes a novel cellular gut-brain axis.
Sarah’s thesis work centers on the immune response to intracerebral hemorrhage, a particularly deadly form of stroke with no targeted treatments. Stroke survivors are also twice as likely to suffer from dementia in the months and years following their stroke, and Sarah aims to understand whether chronic inflammation post-stroke continues to affect the brain months after the initial injury.
Congratulations Tomomi and Sarah!