Unraveling Sex Differences in Immunity: A System Immunology Approach

My PhD in Computational Biology will focus on revealing, via a systems immunology approach, how sex chromosomes and sex hormones modulate the immune response. First, I will explore sex differences in hematopoiesis to understand the emergence of sex differences in immunity. Then, I will investigate the effect of hormone replacement therapy on a non-human primate model. I will study the effect of exogenous estrogen in male (XY karyotype) rhesus macaques and that of exogenous testosterone in female (XX karyotype) rhesus macaques, both in a resting immune state, and after an immune insult (vaccination). Lastly, I will assess the role of androgens during infection. For this, I will evaluate the effect of androgen inhibitors in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.