Rebecca L.R. Powell, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the departments of Medicine and Immunology and Immunotherapy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC. Her early post-doctoral research was performed at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative Design and Development Lab, where she was involved in pre-clinical testing of replicating viral vector vaccines against HIV. Dr. Powell’s background in HIV research brought her to Mount Sinai, where she first found her niche studying the impact of the cellular immune response in milk on mitigating mother-to-child transmission of HIV via breastfeeding. Dr. Powell has continued that work and currently has several other projects aimed to fill knowledge gaps about human milk immunology, exploring: the antibody response to COVID-19, Influenza, and RSV; therapeutic use of extracted human secretory IgA; and the pre-clinical modeling and design of maternal vaccines aimed to elicit robust and protective milk antibody responses. Dr. Powell lives in Brooklyn with her partner and 4 children.

Xiaoqi Yang, PhD (Postdoc)

Alisa Fox (Senior Research Associate) graduated with her bachelor’s in science from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a degree in microbiology and biochemistry. She has worked in plant physiology studying the symbiotic interactions between different plant species and mutually beneficial microbes. Concurrently, she spent time leading human gut microbiome studies. As a part of Dr. Powell’s team, Alisa has focused on immunological studies involving human breast milk spanning various biological infections, including HIV, influenza, and COVID-19. It continues to be particularly interesting and important to Alisa to learn how to better understand communities that are often not considered in many scientific studies.

Claire DeCarlo (Research Associate)

Nicole Pineda (Research Coordinator) obtained her Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Florida State University. Prior to working in Dr. Powell’s lab, she worked in the study of in vitro pathophysiology and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 in lung parenchyma at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She also has research experience in AAV-based ocular gene therapy treatment for Leber congenital amaurosis. Currently, Nicole works in Dr. Powell’s lab as the clinical research coordinator. She administers the research projects involving human milk immunology in relation to COVID-19 infection and/or COVID-19 vaccine administration. Nicole is delighted to be part of a team that studies human milk immunology to eventually develop maternal vaccines that will optimize health outcomes for both mother and child.