Engineered Regulatory T-cell Therapy for Tolerance to FVIII

Moanaro Biswas, PhD, is currently an Assistant Professor in the Gene and Cell Therapy Program at the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research at Indiana University, Indianapolis. She was appointed to this position in May 2018. She received her Masters and PhD in Biotechnology from India. She joined the University of Florida in 2013 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and was subsequently appointed a faculty position in the department of Pediatrics at UF in 2017. She is mentored by Dr. Roland W. Herzog, a distinguished professor with extensive expertise in gene therapy for hemophilia. While at the University of FLorida, she received the Henry A. Kokomoor Award for excellence in Pediatric Research in 2017. Dr. Biswas has been the recipient of an early career investigator award from Bayer in 2016. Dr. Biswas is interested in studying cell and gene therapy-based treatments for combating inhibitor formation in hemophilia, As the 2018 recipient of the NHF/Novo Nordisk Career Development Award, which is made possible by a generous gift from Novo Nordisk, Dr. Biswas will be researching engineered Treg therapy for tolerance induction in hemophilia A. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) expressing Tregs, made specific for FVIII, will be tested in a murine model of hemophilia A. She will explore at the cellular and molecular level, interactions between antigen-specific CAR-Tregs and immune cell types involved in the development of inhibitors to FVIII.