Dr. Konnikova is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics with secondary appointments in Immunobiology and Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. Her NIH funded group focuses on understanding host and environmental drivers of development and regulation of circulating and mucosal immunity and their roles in human health and disease. She graduated summa cum laude with highest honors from Brandeis University majoring in Chemistry and Biology. She then went on to complete her MD PhD training at Tufts University School of Medicine under the guidance of Dr. Brent Cochrane. Her thesis focused on the role of STAT3 signaling in glioblastoma. She remained in Boston to continue her training in Pediatrics and Neonatology both at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she remained for her post-doctorate training with Dr. Scott Snapper. Using a systems biology approaches and cutting-edge techniques such as imaging and suspension mass cytometry and single cell RNA sequencing, her group has focused on deciphering how mucosal immunity develops at barrier sites such as the placenta and the GI tract and what goes array to cause diseases at these sites. To this end, her group has established a large biorepository of cryopreserved tissue across the human lifespan. Using tissue from their biobank, her group has been able to study the development of human fetal intestinal and placental immunity.  In their desire to understand mucosal dysregulation in disease, the Konnikova group has identified global mucosal and systemic cellular dysregulation and unique immune and epithelial populations in necrotizing enterocolitis and inflammatory bowel disease. Finally, in order to study epithelial immune interactions her group has established immune co-cultures with intestine and placental villi derived organoid models.