Current Lab Members

Pamela Rosato, PhD

Principal Investigator
Pam grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.S. from The College of William & Mary in 2008. There, her time in the lab of Dr. Patty Zwollo studying B cells in rainbow trout sparked her interest in immunology. She then spent a year at the Ragon Institute in Boston as a technician before joining the Molecular & Cellular Biology graduate program at Dartmouth. Pam earned her Ph.D. from the lab of Dr. David Leib where she studied neuronal immunity to herpes simplex virus, and her curiosity in immune control of viral infections took off. Excited by the discovery of tissue resident memory T cells and their implication in viral immunity, she went on to train as a postdoc with Dr. David Masopust at the University of Minnesota. Pam returned to Dartmouth as an Assistant Professor in 2020 where her labs studies T cell immunity to viruses in the brain and tumors. Outside of the lab Pam loves to run, camp and hike with her husband, Alex, and dogs.

Sierra Kleist, BS

PhD Graduate Student

Sierra grew up in Wisconsin and received her B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire in 2019. During undergrad, she worked in the lab of Dr. Daniel Herman, where she studied soil-derived antibiotic-producing bacteria. Following graduation, Sierra’s interest in immunology grew through a research internship at the Mayo Clinic. There, in Dr. Kathryn Knoop’s lab, she studied the role of gut-residing bacteria on the development of the immune system. Sierra started her graduate studies at Dartmouth in the fall of 2020, and joined the Rosato lab for her thesis. She is interested in studying the role of resident memory T cells in brain tumors, and how they may be utilized as an immunotherapy. Outside of the lab, Sierra loves to spend time outdoors hiking, skiing, and exploring New England. She is currently trying to hike all of New Hampshire’s 4000 footers!

Hanna Degefu, BS

PhD Graduate Student

Originally from Ethiopia, Hanna completed her undergraduate degree at Colby-Sawyer College with a B.S. in Biology and minors in Math & Chemistry. During her time at Colby-Sawyer, she worked with Dr. Chery Whipple investigating the role of antimicrobial peptides in cancer.  Before joining MCB, she spent time as an NH-INBRE iSRUF fellow at Dartmouth studying the development of memory T cells in the Huang Lab. Her work in the Rosato Lab seeks to understand the role of resident memory T cells in oncolytic viral therapy. Outside of lab, Hanna enjoys the brief warm NH weather, hiking and cooking.

Tiffany Chen, BS

PhD graduate student

Originally from Florida, Tiffany graduated from Princeton University in 2020, receiving her BA in Molecular Biology and minor in Neuroscience. During her time there, her thesis work focused on autism, the cerebellum, and mouse learning behaviors in the Wang Lab. After graduating, her interest in neuroimmunology grew upon joining the Okada Lab at UCSF as a research technician, focusing on CAR-T cell immunotherapies for glioblastoma. In the Rosato Lab, her work seeks to understand how resident memory T cells in the brain impact the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Outside the lab, Tiffany enjoys dog-spotting (in the hopes of one day having one of her own), baking, taekwondo, and drawing.

Arielle Sclar, BS

PhD Graduate Student

Joint with Skorput Lab

Arielle grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.S. in Neuroscience and minor in Religious Studies from Lafayette College in 2022. There, she worked in the lab of Dr. Tamara Stawicki studying the roles of cilia genes in sensory hair cell regeneration in zebrafish. During her undergraduate studies she also spent time in the lab of Dr. Rosalind Segal at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute studying the pediatric brain tumor microenvironment. Arielle entered the IND program at Dartmouth in 2022, and joined the Skorput and Rosato labs for her thesis. She is interested in studying neuro-immune interactions in ocular chronic pain. Outside of lab, Arielle loves to run, hike, surf, and spend time with her family.

Celeste Parra Bravo, PhD

Postdoc

Celeste grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and received her B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Santa Barbara in 2020. During her time at UCSB, she worked in the lab of Dr. Ken Kosik studying the role of delta-catenin protein in neurodevelopmental disorders. She also spent a summer in San Francisco in the lab of Dr. Martin Kampmann at UCSF conducting a CRISPRi screen for cellular factors driving tau protein oligomerization in a human iPS neuronal model. After graduation, Celeste began her doctoral studies at Weill Cornell in New York City. There, she earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2025 from the lab of Dr. Li Gan dissecting the underlying mechanisms of tau aggregation, leveraging a 4R-tau iPS neuronal model and CRISPR functional genomic screening. In the Rosato lab, Celeste is interested in characterizing the dynamics of tissue resident memory T cells and how they affect neighboring cells in the brain. Outside of lab, Celeste enjoys climbing, biking, spending time with friends, and watching reality TV with her husband.

Neva DiBlasi, BS

PhD Graduate student

Neva grew up in Salem, NY and received her B.S. in Biological Engineering with a minor in Chemistry from Wentworth Institute of Technology in 2022. During her time in undergraduate studies she worked at a biotech company aimed toward leveraging T cells to target solid tumors. Following this experience, she sought to continue in an immune related field, researching different engineering methods to develop an allogeneic B cell to evade immune rejection. In the Rosato lab Neva is excited to research how resident memory T cells can be harnessed for therapeutic benefit in brain tumor settings as well as how they implicate brain tumor metastasis. Outside of the lab Neva loves to explore new music, spend time with her family, ski, bake sourdough, play the fiddle and is an avid concert-goer. She is also a new dog mom and loves to come home to spend time with her puppy!!

Anais Rhoades, BS

Research Assistant

Anais Rhoades graduated from Hampton University in 2022 with a bachelor's degree in Biochemistry. There she joined Dr.Peter Njoki's lab exploring the morphology, interactions, and manipulation of multi-metallic nanoparticles units in the context of electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. Her research interest pivoted to the area of neuroimmunology after joining the Rosato and Skorput labs in July of 2023, where she has had the opportunity to be a supportive asset to graduate students, gain research experience, and amount invaluable professional and personal growth. Her favorite part of her job is when after spending weeks discussing, planning, executing, and troubleshooting experiments, she can finally image and see those pretty bright red neurons. Her two favorite beings in the world are her cats, Pingle and London. She also enjoys time with family, learning about and speaking with strangers, and traveling.

Brady and Finn

Lab morale