Francesca Gilli, PhD
Francesca Gilli is an Associate Professor of Neurology and of Microbiology & Immunology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She is also a Co-Director of the Graduate Program in Integrative Neuroscience at Dartmouth. Born and raised in Italy, Francesca earned an M.S. in Medical Biotechnology and a Ph.D. in Human Biology (with a focus on Neurobiology / Neuroimmunology) from the Università Degli Studi di Torino (Italy). She then completed her postdoctoral research in neuroimmunology at Università Degli Studi di Torino (Italy), and Dartmouth College (USA). Her predoctoral research focused on the immunogenicity and biological action of IFNβ therapy in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), while her postdoctoral research focused on the molecular mechanisms behind the adaptive immune response in pregnancy in MS. She also completed a Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Fellowship at the Università Degli Studi di Torino (Italy) in 2011. In 2014, Francesca joined the faculty in the Neurology Department of the Geisel School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor, where she works as a basic scientist affiliated with the MS Center at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and the White River Junction VA Medical Center. When not at work, Francesca is usually found skiing, scuba diving, or enjoying leisure time with her friends and family
Nora Welsh, BS
Nora Welsh is currently in her fourth year at Dartmouth College, pursuing her Ph.D. in integrative neuroscience, with an emphasis in neuroimmunology. She chose this program because she is interested in studying neuroscience for the betterment of human health by creating and discovering treatments for neurological diseases that are currently untreatable. She is currently studying network analyses in Multiple Sclerosis, attempting to design predictors of disease conversion by assessing connections between intrathecally derived proteins. Prior to Dartmouth, Nora was a post-baccalaureate fellow at the National Institutes of Health where she focused on creating therapeutics for noise-induced hearing loss by studying basic models of the inner ear function. She completed her Bachelor of Science at Georgetown University where she studied Parkinson’s disease, analyzing the neuroinflammatory phenotypes of microglia and attempting to characterize them to use the cells as therapeutic targets. When not in the lab, Nora can be found tending to her chickens, foraging for food, or coaching on the rugby pitch. Nora and her wife Casey are mothers to 2 dogs, 5 cats, 2 ducks, and 24 chickens.
Steven Pike, BS
Steve Pike is currently a second-year Ph.D. IND student co-mentored by Dr. Francesca Gilli and Dr. Lucas Salas. In May 2020 he graduated from SUNY University at Buffalo with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. During that time, he had the fantastic opportunity to be exposed to biomedical research in Dr. Jennifer Surtees’s lab where he studied MSH3 protein biochemistry in different DNA repair pathways. From this experience, he discovered a passion for research and specific interests in neuroscience and immunology. His current work centers around characterizing the cellular inflammatory responses that are unique to clinically isolated syndrome (CIS) patients who eventually convert to relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). The purpose of understanding the biological basis of this phenomenon is crucial in predicting which patient populations will eventually succumb to the disease and initiating treatment as early as possible. To study this, he uses computational, high-throughput, multi-ohmic approaches that rely on technologies such as single-cell RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, DNA methylation profiling, and multiplexed immunosorbent assays. With these experiments, we gain information about immune cell populations on an epigenetic, transcriptional, and proteomic level to infer cellular responses present at the early stages of multiple sclerosis. Outside of his time in the lab, Steve enjoys skiing, cooking, and hanging out with his friends while exploring the Upper Valley.