Dr. Netali Morgenstern-Ben Baruch

For her PhD in Immunology at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Morgenstern-Ben Baruch worked closely with researchers in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). The specific mouse strains and facilities she needed were not available in Israel, so she went to Cincinnati every 6 months to work on her project. She investigated Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), a type 2 inflammatory disease characterized by eating difficulties, vomiting, epigastric or chest pain, dysphagia, and food impaction. EoE has a unique histopathology—impaired mucosal integrity, eosinophilic inflammation, and other manifestations, which appear to be triggered by T cell populations in the esophageal tissue. Researchers have discovered a counter-regulatory system that can restrain immune cell action, called “inhibitory receptors.” For her current project, Dr. Morgenstern-Ben Baruch will be at the lab in Cincinnati full-time. She will investigate one such inhibitory receptor, Immunoglobulin-like transcript 2, or ILT-2, to learn more about its role in T cell expansion and activation in EoE patients. She hopes to devote her career to research into personalized medication of food-related disorders. During her PhD, Dr. Morgenstern-Ben Baruch served as a teaching assistant at the Sackler Medical School at Tel Aviv University.