Keyla Sá, Ph.D.

Research

In the Iwasaki lab, I aim to understand how autoantibodies (AAB) can be pathogenic and lead to the development of neurological symptoms. Infections are known to trigger the production of antibodies as a natural response to clear the pathogen, with an inevitable rise in autoreactivity that results from the diversification and expansion of antibody families during the course of infection. Normally, these antibody populations contract as the immune system returns to a healthy set-point and only a fraction of the pathogen-targeted antibodies are preserved in the compartment where the immune system maintains immunologic memory. However, several reports have shown that AAB can be associated with several post-acute infection syndromes (PAIS), such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, long Lyme Disease and post-acute sequelae of COVID-19. My work will be translational and interdisciplinary, leveraging immunology, neuroscience, and machine-learning techniques to determine the neuroimmunology mechanisms that are associated with PAIS. By defining the mechanism through which AABs can cause neurological symptoms, and identifying a robust set of tests that can be deployed to reveal these pathological autoreactivities, we will enable the diagnosis and treatment of this patient population.