Meet The Team
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Sara Barmettler, MD
Co-Director
Site PI: Mass General Brigham
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Dr. Barmettler has clinical and research expertise in primary and secondary immunodeficiency. She is also highly involved in quality improvement and education. Dr. Barmettler’s research is focused on improving the understanding of underlying immune mechanisms and quality of patient care for patients with primary and secondary immunodeficiencies. This research has the potential to have significant impact by defining clinical and immunophenotypic risk factors and using predictive modeling to allow for increased monitoring, with the goal of decreasing morbidity and mortality.
Dr. Barmettler graduated with honors from Amherst College with a BA in Biology and Music. She studied medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical school, completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and completed her fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Allergy and Immunology.
Website link:
Publications
Jocelyn Farmer, MD, PhD
Co-Director
Site PI: Beth Israel Lahey Health
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Dr. Jocelyn Farmer is an Associate Professor of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School and the current Director of the Clinical Immunodeficiency Program of Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH), centered at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, MA. She leads efforts in assembling and maintaining the joint immunodeficiency patient biobank, paired with an active RedCap database. She has long-standing research collaborations with Drs. Barmettler, Ong, Maglione, and DiGiacomo. Her research focuses on elucidating pathomechanisms of autoinflammatory disease among patients with inborn errors of immunity towards the larger goal of early disease recognition and targeted treatment intervention. She currently serves as site principal investigator for several ongoing clinical trials for patients with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) who have autoinflammatory end-organ disease complications.
https://physicians.lahey.org/details/4753
Paul Maglione, MD, PhD
Co-Director
Site PI: Boston Medical Center
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Dr. Maglione is at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Maglione studies human B cell biology, particularly in how it relates to and is informed by primary immunodeficiency disorders. His research program utilizes high throughput strategies such as RNA sequencing, B cell receptor repertoire analysis, and seromics together with cell culture, immunofluorescence, and information from the patient medical record to conduct bedside-to-bench studies on immunodeficiency disorders. In addition to running a research laboratory, Dr. Maglione provides clinical care for patients with immunodeficiency disorders and has particular interest and expertise in common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) and its related complications, including chronic lung disease. His publications include identification of novel biomarkers and treatment of CVID interstitial lung disease.
Mei-Sing Ong, PhD
Co-Director
Clinical Informatics
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Dr. Ong is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. As a scientist working at the intersection of informatics and medicine, Dr. Ong’s research harnesses longitudinal clinical data to improve diagnosis and optimal treatment of chronic diseases, with a focus on advancing evidence-based care for pediatric chronic diseases, including primary immunodeficiency disorders (PID). Her research introduces computational methodologies to the study of chronic diseases that are often misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, including the application of machine learning methods to identify underdiagnosed diseases and to investigate the effects of treatments. She has a long-standing collaboration with Dr. Jocelyn Farmer and Dr. Sara Barmettler in PID-related research, focusing on understanding the epidemiology of PID.
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Daniel DiGiacomo, MD, MPH
Co-Director
​Site PI: Hackensack Meridian Health​
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Dr. DiGiacomo is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Hackensack Meridian School Of Medicine. He is actively involved in clinical research with an interest in the epidemiology of predominantly antibody deficiency disorders and non-infectious gastrointestinal complications of primary immunodeficiencies. Dr. DiGiacomo has extensive experience collaborating with Dr. Jocelyn Farmer, Dr. Sara Barmettler, and Dr. Mei-Sing Ong working on several projects related to defining the epidemiologic drivers of disease in primary immunodeficiencies.