Whitney E Harrington, MD, PhD

Dr. Harrington’s research focuses on intergenerational immune interactions and their effect on susceptibility to infection during pregnancy and infection. In particular, her lab investigates the role of maternal microchimerism (maternal cells acquired by the fetus in utero) in fetal and infant immune development, early vaccine responses, and susceptibility to infection. Current projects in her lab include isolating and phenotyping maternal cells from pregnancies affected and unaffected by infection, determining whether infants acquire a maternal graft with immunologic memory, and investigating whether the maternal cells affect the development of immune responses against malaria, HIV, and CMV in the infant. She has also launched a number of SARS-CoV-2 related projects, including the identification and characterization of Spike-specific T cells in breast milk. She collaborates with Drs. Aitchison, Englund, Frenkel, Gern, Jaspan, Minkah, Sather, and Sodora within the division.