Although many consider the central nervous system (CNS) to be immune privileged, that is not always true.  Stem cell derived products have the potential to impact the course of CNS diseases, but there are variable rates of survival and function due to the immune responses associated with disease onset through damaged blood-brain barrier. To improve survival of transplanted cells, current therapies incorporate a battery of immunosuppression medication, which can be challenging to administer to some patients, have compliance issues, and can be a significant source of adverse events. Furthermore, variable timing of immunosuppression has been linked to graft failure. Thus, better understanding how therapeutic cells can evade host immune response could lead to development of future CNS therapeutics having improved cell survival, engraftment, and persistence. Tori’s work will incorporate aspects of Sana Biotechnology’s hypoimmune platform to evaluate the engraftment, survival, and ability to evade the immune system of stem cell derived products both in vitro and in vivo to increase understanding regarding the biological impacts of cell therapies in the CNS.

Tori joined ABNEL in the fall of 2022 as a Chemical Engineering Industry PhD student with Sana Biotechnology. Prior to her graduate studies at Northeastern University, Tori completed her bachelor’s degree at Salem State University and master’s degree at University of New Hampshire. Her master’s research was done in the integrative and organismal biology department under the direction of Dr. Winsor Watson, titled “Localization of circadian clock neurons and investigation of how they influence the expression of specific behaviours in the marine mollusk, Melibe Leonina.” After her master’s degree, Tori worked at Boston Children’s Hospital in the structural biology lab under Dr. Steven Harrison and currently works as a scientist in the translational sciences group at Sana Biotechnology.

M.S. Neurobiology and Neurosciences
University of New Hampshire ’17
Durham, NH

B.S. Biology
Salem State University ’19
Salem, MA

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