Nicole Coufal, MD, PhD
University California, San Diego
Dr. Nicole Coufal is a Physician Scientist with training in pediatric critical care and research interests in neuroimmunology. The goal of her lab is to understand the contribution of innate immunity to neurodevelopmental and pediatric neurodegenerative diseases. By understanding the interaction between the brain environment and cellular ontogeny on macrophage function, the lab strives to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying innate immune dysfunction to ultimately identify novel therapeutic targets in untreatable pediatric diseases. Her lab utilizes a combination of translational, patient-specific pluripotent stem cell and genome-wide approaches to identify cellular mechanisms in common neurodevelopmental and rare pediatric neurodegenerative disorders.