Lab Members – Weiner Laboratory

Principal Investigator
Howard L. Weiner

Dr. Howard L. Weiner is the Robert L. Kroc Professor of Neurology at the Harvard Medical School, Director and Founder of the Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center and Co-Director of the Center for Neurologic Diseases at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. Dr. Weiner established the Partners Multiple Sclerosis Center at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in 2000 which combines clinical evaluation, MRI imaging and immune monitoring and is the first integrated MS center that brings these disciplines to the individual care of the MS patient. Dr. Weiner has pioneered the use of immunotherapy and the drug cyclophosphamide for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and has investigated immune abnormalities in the disease including the role of the innate immune system and regulatory T cells. He has also pioneered the use of the mucosal immune system for the treatment of autoimmune and other diseases, including ALS, Huntington’s disease, and stroke. Based on his work vaccines are being tested in multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and most recently in Alzheimer’s disease. He is also developing new therapeutic options for Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO). Dr. Weiner is the author of Curing MS: How Science is Solving the Mystery of Multiple Sclerosis that chronicles the history of MS, his 30+ years in the research and clinical treatment of MS, and details his “21 point hypothesis” on the etiology and treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Instructor in Neurology Panagiota Kolypetri, PhD	Dr. Panagiota Kolypetri received her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Democritus University of Thrace, Greece. She continued her graduate education at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada and obtained her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Immunology. During her graduate work, she explored peripheral tolerance mechanisms involved in the immunoregulation of experimental and iodide-accelerated spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis under the supervision of Dr. George Carayanniotis. In 2015, she started her postdoctoral research training in Dr. Weiner’s laboratory investigating how the gut microbiome modulates the biology of monocytes at extraintestinal sites. She discovered that certain gut microbiome-derived products present in the bloodstream affect the homeostasis and function of splenic monocytes, a subset with a key role in central-nervous system-related diseases. In 2020, Dr. Kolypetri promoted to Instructor of Neurology and currently her research studies focus on the mechanisms whereby nasal Protollin, a proteosome-based adjuvant, promotes the neuroprotective properties of monocytes in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and in AD patients participating in a Phase 1a single ascending dose clinical trial led by Dr. Weiner. Her primary goal is to understand the pathways involved in the microbiome-monocyte communication and their therapeutic potential in inflammatory diseases.
Instructor in Neurology Selma Boulenouar, PhD	Dr. Selma Boulenouar, Ph.D. is an Instructor at the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, focused on investigating the immunometabolic regulation of metabolic, digestive, and neurodegenerative diseases. Her research journey began with an INSERM scholarship in France, studying dendritic cell regulation in lung infections, followed by an FNRS-funded Ph.D. at the ULB-Institut Pasteur of Brussels, where she explored host-pathogen interactions in pregnancy. At the University of Cambridge, a Marie-Sklodowska Curie Fellowship enabled her to uncover specialized immune cell subsets in the uterus, revealing new aspects of tissue-resident immunity. Currently based at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Boulenouar’s work centers on the immunometabolic regulation of immune cells in the intestine, adipose tissue, liver, and brain, with a focus on mouse models of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. She aims to develop combined immunotherapies with GLP1R agonists for treating metabolic, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative diseases. Her lab fosters collaboration and invites trainees who are passionate about advancing immunometabolic research in health and disease.
Instructor in Neurology Thais Moreira, PhD	Since I started my scientific career in 2005, I have been fascinated about the relationship between the intestine and the immune system. This research interest led me to pursue a MSc and PhD in Immunology in Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, with emphasis on intestinal mucosa. In 2017 I started my postdoctoral fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital under the mentorship of Dr. Howard Weiner, in which I investigated the compartmentalization of specialized dendritic cells in different regions of the intestine. More recently, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had the opportunity to lead a clinical trial to test the effect of nasal administrated monoclonal anti-CD3 (Foralumab) in COVID-19 patients. I am deeply committed to a research career with a major focus understanding environmental causes of neurologic diseases and the development of intestinal mucosa-based therapies that can modulate the gut microbiota and control inflammation, restore immune tolerance and thus prevent/treat autoimmune diseases. I’m currently a junior faculty member on HMS (Instructor of neurology) and my ultimate scientific goals are to perform independent science and bench to bedside work to benefit patients from cut-edging science and innovatory immunotherapies.
Clinical Research Fellow Mahsa Khayat-Khoei, MD, MBA	Mahsa Khayat-Khoei, MD, MBA, is a fellowship-trained neuroimmunologist, currently a research fellow at Dr. Howard Weiner’s laboratory. Mahsa finished her medical school in Tehran, Iran, followed by neurology residency training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and a three-year clinical research fellowship in Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Department of Neurology and Harvard Medical School. Mahsa has received several prominent awards including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant, Best Poster and Presentation Award in the Massachusetts Neurological Association 2023 Annual Meeting, Educational Grant and Educational Travel Grant from Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) and American Academy of Neurology (AAN), Full MD Scholarship in Medical School, Distinguished Alumni Award in Medical School, and Perseverance Award during her MBA. Mahsa’s interest is in stem-cell biology and regenerative medicine and using that to study innate immunity’s role in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. Mahsa’s current project has been focused on studying the effects of Monocytes in Progressive Multiple Sclerosis.
Instructor in Neurology Dan Hu, PhD	Dan obtained her PhD in molecular pathology studying cancer immunotherapy from the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. She is currently an instructor in neurology in Dr. Weiners group. She studies T cell function in both murine and human systems. Her current research interest is to understand the role of T cells in the pathogenesis of human autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases.
Postdoctoral Rsearch Fellow Luke Schwerdtfeger, PhD	Luke Schwerdtfeger is a postdoctoral research fellow studying the role of microbial derived metabolites in driving gut immune function in neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Federico Montini, MD	Federico Montini, MD, graduated at Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna (Italy) and completed his residency in Neurology and PHD in molecular medicine at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University (Italy). Federico joined the Weiner Lab and is now investigating the role of microbiome in several neurologic disorders with a focus on multiple sclerosis. Under the mentorship of Dr. Weiner he is pursuing the goal of becoming a clinician-scientist, combining his passion for patient care with cutting-edge research.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Debanjan Mukherjee, PhD	I started my scientific journey in my home country India. Being recipient of the EvimalaR fellowship and EMBO Short-term Fellowship, I have had the excellent opportunity to work in the European Union working on host-microbiome interactions in severe malaria mice models of infection. My findings in recent years have contributed to a conceptual shift in the malaria research field, bringing back to the spotlight the classical epidemiological triad – Plasmodium-host-environment. We have pioneered the concept that certain environmental cues, such as nutrient availability and host dietary habits, strongly impact the outcome of malaria infections by interfering with both host and parasite pathways during different stages of infection. Here in the Weiner lab, during my post-doctoral research training I am looking to understand a concept of how malaria infection has long term consequences on the CNS vasculature and may pre-dispose to auto-immune disorders like Multiple Sclerosis (MS) by triggering microglia-astrocyte activation. Besides science, I love playing tennis and trying to cook exotic new dishes.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Somen Mistri, PhD	Somen is a hybrid immunologist with expertise in both experimental and computational techniques. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and a Ph.D. in Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Vermont, USA, where his dissertation focused on deciphering the role of SLAM/SAP signaling in γδ T cell development. Following his Ph.D., he completed a 1.5-year postdoctoral fellowship in the same lab, deepening his study of the biology of innate-like immune cells. In the fall of 2024, Somen joined Dr. Howard Weiner’s laboratory to expand his research into translational neuroimmunology. His primary focus is on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), aiming to modulate the immune system to identify new therapeutic strategies for AD. With his hybrid skill set, Somen is also involved in a range of other projects within the lab, providing valuable contributions in both wet lab and bioinformatics capacities.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Megha Kaul, PhD	Megha earned her MBBS from Netaji Subash Chandra Bose Medical College, India, in 2019. She completed a year-long medical internship , gaining diverse clinical experience across primary, urban, and community health centers. In November 2021, she joined the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She is working on research that focuses on the gut microbiome’s role in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Megha is looking into the therapeutic potential of specific microbiota and microbial products, the impact of antibiotic modulation of the microbiome, and the effects of intranasal anti-CD3 antibody administration on ALS progression.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Patrick da Silva, PhD	Dr Patrick da Silva got his bachelor’s degree in biotechnology at Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), and his master’s degree in microbiology at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP). During his PhD in Microbiology / Bioinformatics, Dr Patrick da Silva specialized in Transcriptomic analysis, as he spent one year as visitor researcher at UCSF focusing on regulation of gene expression. His current position in Weiner’s Lab involves analyzing bulk and single-cell RNA-seq for all the projects being conducted in the group, and as his own project, Dr Patrick da Silva focus on the assessment of the peripheral immune cells role in Multiple Sclerosis progression.
Bioinformatician / Research Lab Technician Toby Lanser	Originally from the green mountains of Vermont, Toby is a bioinformatician and research associate. His primary focus in the lab entails analyzing single-cell, bulk, and microbiome sequencing datasets in human MS and mouse MS models, with the goal of describing and modeling the differences in progressive & non progressive forms of MS. He graduated from the University of Vermont with degrees in molecular genetics & microbiology in 2022.
Senior Research Lab Technician Taha Yahya	I am a Senior Research Technician in the Izzy/Weiner Labs at the Immunology of Brain Injury Program and Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School working mainly under the mentorship of Dr. Izzy. I focus on investigating mucosal immunity and its therapeutic potential in models of acute brain injuries. My current work focuses on the role of nasal anti-CD3 and other therapies in modulating the immune response and improving outcomes following brain injury. I earned my Bachelor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Integrative Biology from the University of Colorado Denver. In addition to my technical work, I mentor junior lab members, ensuring the lab’s collaborative and innovative environment. Outside the lab, I enjoy hiking, watching sports, and spending time with my family.
Research Lab Technician Sahana John	Sahana John holds a PharmD from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, India, and an MS in Biotechnology from the University of Texas at Tyler. She is currently a Research Technician II in the Weiner Laboratory at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where she works with Dr. Thais Moreira on multiple sclerosis research. Sahana brings specialized expertise in molecular biology, autoimmune diseases, and cell analysis. Her background includes extensive experience in BSL-3 labs, focusing on HIV and tuberculosis co-infection studies, nanoparticle formulation, and mastering techniques such as PCR, flow cytometry, and protein purification.
Research Lab Technician Jonathan Christenson	Jonathan R. Christenson, MSc, earned his BSc in Chemistry, and Msc in Biomedical Sciences from Colorado State University. He joined the Weiner Lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as a Research Technician, where he investigates the role of the gut microbiome in neurodegenerative diseases. Through the mentorship of Dr. Weiner, Dr. Montini, and Dr. Schwerdtfeger he is pursuing a career as a clinician.
Research Student Clara Maria Garcia	Clara is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Drug Sciences at the University of Basel, Switzerland. As part of her thesis, she is investigating the beneficial role of gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases in Dr. Cox’s lab. During her Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Clara worked for two years as a research assistant at University Hospital Basel, studying pathways related to hearing loss. Before her academic pursuits, she worked for three years as a laboratory technician in the R&D department at Novartis, Basel. She has a strong interest in drug discovery and development.
Research Student Chaymae El Baha	Chaymae El Baha is a PhD student at UM6P, Morocco, and a research trainee under the mentorship of Dr. Selma Boulenouar. She investigates the neuro-metabolic and epigenetic regulation of T cells.
Research Student Fatiha Laalouhmi	Fatiha Laalouhmi is a PhD student at UM6P, Morocco, and a research trainee under the guidance of Dr. Selma Boulenouar. Her research explores the effects of a Western diet on intestinal homeostasis and investigates the combined therapeutic potential of GLP-1 receptor agonists and nasal anti-CD3 immunotherapy in addressing obesity-related complications and neurodegenerative diseases.
Research Student Sara El Guendouzi	Sara El Guendouzi is a PhD student at UM6P, Morocco, working as a research trainee under Dr. Selma Boulenouar. Her work focuses on delineating the regulatory mechanisms of anti-CD3 immunotherapy within T cell populations.
Senior Administrative Assistant Janelle Weathers	Janelle received her Masters Degree in Healthcare Management from Cambridge College in 2015. She has worked for the ARCND for 6 years. Janelle has been working as Senior Administrative Assistant for Dr. Weiner for the last 3 years.

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