Leticia Tordesillas, PhD
Leticia Tordesillas, PhD, and Elizabeth Heller, PhD, are the recipients of the 2015 Robin Chemers Neustein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, which was created to encourage and support female research scientists at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Tordesillas works in the laboratory of Cecilia Berin, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics. Her research is focused on how to establish immune tolerance to foods for the treatment of food allergy. In particular, she is studying how regulatory T cells induced by epicutaneous immunotherapy are generated and suppress anaphylaxis.
Elizabeth Heller, PhD
Dr. Heller works in the laboratory of Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor and Chair of the Fishberg Department of Neuroscience, and Director of The Friedman Brain Institute. Her research focuses on epigenetic remodeling—the molecular changes that occur at specific genes—in the context of drugs of abuse and stress. Dr. Heller found that a specific epigenetic remodeling factor delivered to the reward region of the brain is sufficient to reverse the effects of drug and stress exposure, demonstrating the potential therapeutic efficacy of epigenetic regulation in combating neuropsychiatric disease.
Drs. Tordesillas and Heller will each receive an award of $25,000 to continue their research endeavors. The award was established in 2010 through a generous gift from Robin Chemers Neustein, a former member of Mount Sinai’s Boards of Trustees.