Maria Curotto de Lafaille, PhD & Principal Investigator, is a Professor of Pediatrics, Immunology and Immunotherapy, and a member of the Jaffe Food Allergy and the Precision Immunology Institutes at Mount Sinai. She obtained her PhD degree in Immunology from the University of São Paulo in Brazil and received her postdoctoral training at Harvard University. Dr. Lafaille made groundbreaking contributions to the fields of mucosal tolerance and allergic sensitization. The main interests of her laboratory are the mechanisms of B cell memory in mice and human allergy, and the immunopathology of chronic allergic inflammation.

Associate Scientist

Mariana is a postdoctoral fellow from Brazil. She obtained her PhD in Immunology from the University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte. In her doctoral work, she characterized the changes in the intestinal immune system that take place during the onset of type 1 diabetes in mice. She is currently working on the transcriptional and metabolic features that defines IgE plasma cells biology and its particular generation dynamics.

Research Instructor

Yolanda’s main interests are B-cell biology and immune-related diseases. She earned her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), where she investigated the role of B cells in rheumatoid arthritis. She completed her postdoctoral training in the Division of Clinical Immunology at Mount Sinai, specializing in Inborn Errors of Immunity. Since joining Dr. Lafaille’s laboratory, her research has focused on the role of B cells in shaping the immune landscape of allergic diseases to understand immune dysregulation and develop novel therapeutic strategies.

Masters Candidate

Isabella is a Masters Candidate in the Biomedical Sciences program at Mount Sinai. Isabella received her Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from Cornell University, where her research focused on characterizing IL-10-producing T cell populations in mouse models of severe influenza infection. Isabella's research interests lie in autoinflammatory diseases and immunological memory and tolerance. Her current work focuses on characterizing memory B cell populations that are associated with persistent peanut allergy in pediatric patients. 

Postdoctoral Fellow

Weslley obtained his PhD in Biochemistry and Immunology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil, where he also received postdoctoral training in Cardiovascular Diseases in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. His previous research addressed disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets in cardiovascular and metabolic disease. Weslley’s current work focuses on the mechanisms that account for the resolution or persistence of human allergic responses.