Laboratory of Clinical Immunology & Microbiology

Bielekova Research Group

The mission of Neuroimmunological Disease Section is to understand, diagnose, prognosticate and cure neuroimmunological diseases.

Photo of Bielekova Research Group Members

Neuroimmunological Disease Section, June 27, 2022: (left to right) Shinji Ashida, M.D., Ph.D., Darwing S. Padilla Rolon, B.Sc., Audrey S. Yee, M.D., Bibi Bielekova, M.D., Peter Kosa, Ph.D., Ruturaj R. Masvekar, Ph.D., Joanna Kocot, Ph.D., Deepthi Nammi, Ph.D. and Michelle Woodland

Credit: NIAID

Bibi Bielekova, M.D.

Chief, Neuroimmunological Diseases Section

Contact: For contact information, search the NIH Enterprise Directory.

Education:

M.D., 1993, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

Dr. Bielekova received an M.D. in 1993 from Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. After a medical internship at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and a neurology residency at Boston University, she did a 3-year postdoctoral research fellowship at the NINDS Neuroimmunology Branch (NIB). In 2018, Dr. Bielekova transferred as a senior investigator to NIAID. Her laboratory is studying mechanisms of immunoregulation and immune-mediated CNS tissue injury in MS and other neuroimmunological diseases with a long-term goal of developing effective therapies. In addition, Dr. Bielekova is a principal investigator on several innovative protocols including adaptively designed Phase I/II clinical trials.

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Bibi Bielekova, M.D.

Shinji Ashida, M.D., Ph.D. (He/Him/His)

Postdoctoral Fellow

Contact: For contact information, search the NIH Enterprise Directory.

Education:

M.D., Ph.D., Neurology

Languages Spoken: Japanese

He analyzes the human samples from patients with Multiple Sclerosis by using single cell RNA analysis and Flow cytometry technique.

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Potrait of Shinji Ashida, Ph.D.

Tiffany Hauser, MBA

Nurse Research Specialist

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Education:

MBA, Project Management
B.S., Nursing
B.S., Biotechnology

Tiffany is a clinical regulatory nurse who engages in recruitment and retention of patients with CNS inflammatory disorders. She also focuses on protocol management, data collection, clinical outcomes, and regulatory guidance.

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Marie B. Kanu­-Jabbie, MSN, RN, NP-C, CNRN

Family Nurse Practitioner

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Education:

MSN, Howard University
BSN, University of Maryland

Research focus on validation of MS disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets within the context of interventional clinical trials and longitudinal follow-up of patients on FDA-approved disease-modifying treatments. Special Interest: Health promotion/prevention, health education and medication adherence 2022-Family Nurse Practitioner- Associate Investigator, National Institutes of Health 2018...

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Joanna Kocot, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)

Rocky Beth Postdoctoral Fellow

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Education:

Ph.D., Medical Science

Languages Spoken: Polish

Joanna is a Rocky Beth fellow at NIAID. She is highly interested in the crosstalk between the immune system and the central nervous system (CNS). Her project aims at developing in vitro model of neural-immune interactions based on co-cultures of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC)-derived cerebral organoids resembling post-natal CNS with autologous primary immune cells to generate shared...

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Portrait of Joanna Kocot, Ph.D.

Peter Kosa, Ph.D. (He/Him/His)

Staff Scientist

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Education:

Ph.D., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Languages Spoken: Slovak

Peter is Staff Scientist in the lab. His work focuses on data analysis and integration of clinical, imaging, genetic and biomarker data with the aim to identify and understand processes that play causal role in progression and severity of Multiple Sclerosis. He’s also a developer/manager of the NDS research database and helps to bridge the bench research with the clinical activities.

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Portrait of Peter Kosa, Ph.D.

Ruturaj R. Masvekar, Ph.D. (He/Him/His)

NDS Research Fellow

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Education:

Ph.D., Neuroscience

Languages Spoken: Marathi, Hindi

Dr. Ruturaj Masvekar is a research fellow in Neuroimmunological Disease Section (NDS). He received his Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience with emphasis on neuroinflammatory diseases from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). His research interests lie in broad areas of cellular and molecular pathways underlying neuroinflammatory diseases, discovery of new therapeutic targets, identification of novel...

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Portrait of Ruturaj R. Masvekar, Ph.D.

Deepthi Nammi, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)

Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow

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Education:

Ph.D., Computational Drug Discovery

Languages Spoken: Telugu, Hindi

Deepthi Nammi is a postdoctoral visiting fellow in our lab and her major research interest is to understand the mechanisms of causal pathways and genes/proteins that participate in central nervous system (CNS) injury, especially multiple sclerosis (MS).

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Portrait of Deepthi Nammi, Ph.D.

Darwing S. Padilla Rolon, B.Sc. (He/Him/His)

INRO Postbaccalaureate Trainee Fellow

Contact: For contact information, search the NIH Enterprise Directory.

Education:

B.Sc., Biology

Languages Spoken: Spanish

Darwing graduated with a B.Sc. in biology and a minor in multidisciplinary neuroscience from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey. He is a NIAID INRO postbaccalaureate trainee fellow in our lab focused on studying human neural-immune interactions by using iPSCs derived cerebral organoids as a research model.

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Portrait of Darwing S. Padilla Rolon, B.Sc

Audrey S. Yee, M.D. (She/Her/Hers)

Staff Clinician

Contact: For contact information, search the NIH Enterprise Directory.

Education:

M.D., Neurology

Dr. Yee works on the validation of MS disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets in interventional clinical trials and longitudinal follow-up of patients on FDA-approved disease-modifying treatments.

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Portrait of Audrey S. Yee, Ph.D., M.D.

Former Research Group Members

Alison Wichman, M.D.

Marie Sanford, CRNP

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