Dr. Katja Weinacht is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist with special interest in the niche of diseases that intersect immune dysfunction, primary immunodeficiency and bone marrow failure. Dr. Weinacht's clinical practice focuses on pediatric patients requiring a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, patients with DiGeorge Syndrome and patients with genetic immune diseases presenting with autoimmunity. As a physician-scientist, she strives to advance our insights into the mechanisms leading to immunodeficiency, autoimmunity and tolerance on a molecular level and to translate our research into novel targeted therapies patients.

Dr. Weinacht's work is a natural extension of her clinical training in pediatric hematology-oncology combined with my scientific background in immunology and microbiology. After completing my clinical training at Boston Children’s Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Weinacht joined the laboratory of Luigi D. Notarangelo in the division of immunology, Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Stem Cell Institute, where she acquired skills in the field of reprogramming, tissue engineering and gene correction. The Weinacht laboratory now uses iPSC-based disease models to study how defects in mitochondrial metabolism and oxidative stress affect hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell development and cell death with the goal of identifying therapeutic targets. A separate focus of the laboratory is devoted to understanding the thymic developmental defects in DiGeorge syndrome.