Helena completed her PhD in Neuroscience in the Stevens Lab. Her doctoral work explored circadian rhythms in brain innate immunity using a combination of single-cell RNA sequencing, flow cytometry, and functional assays. Helena identified brain border-associated macrophages (BAMs) as highly efficient and rhythmic scavengers of fluid-born substrates such as amyloid-beta, and found that deletion of the clock gene BMAL1 in BAMs abolished their diurnal rhythms and worsened perivascular plaque deposition in the 5xFAD mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Helena is now pursuing her postdoctoral work at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard where she is building stem cell-derived models of BAMs with the goal of improving their scavenging capacity to attenuate amyloid pathology in the brain. Outside of the lab, she enjoys skiing, hiking, and live music with her loved ones.

Contact info: hbarr@broadinstitute.org

Helena also believes that each scientist can be define along the following four axes:

Baker vs. Chef
Anxious vs. Confident
Upbeat vs. Burnt out
Loud vs. Quiet

What is your science personality type?

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