Norwood woman killed by plow remembered as 'exceptional scientist'

"MBTA Transit Police officials identified the woman Tuesday as Noriko Rapley, a 51-year-old Norwood resident. Rapley was a well-regarded scientist who worked at the Mass General Research Institute and as an instructor at Harvard Medical School. She was affiliated with the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology at MGH. In a statement, MGH called Rapley an "exceptional scientist whose work was driven by rigor, creativity, and a deep commitment to understanding human biology.""

""She had a rare ability to make complex biological systems experimentally tractable, combining deep expertise in cell and molecular biology with innovative model systems. Through the creative use of intestinal organoids, her work pushed the frontiers of cell and tissue modeling and uncovered previously unknown mechanisms linking genetics, intestinal physiology, autoimmunity, and allergy. Her scientific rigor was matched only by her integrity, which was central to who she was," MGH said."

A snowplow truck struck a married couple in the Norwood Central MBTA parking lot during a major snowstorm, killing Noriko Rapley and injuring her husband. Rapley, 51, was a research scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, affiliated with the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology. She began at MGH in 2008 and joined the CCIB in 2019. Her research focused on intestinal biology and developing therapeutic approaches for food allergies and inflammatory bowel disease using intestinal organoids. The plow operator, a 33-year-old man, remained at the scene and cooperated with detectives.

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