Edward John Wherry III (known professionally as John Wherry) is an American immunologist. He is the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President's Distinguished Professor and department chair of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He is also the director of the Penn Institute for Immunology.

Education

Wherry received his B.S. degree in science from

The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

in 1993 and his Ph.D. in immunology from

Thomas Jefferson University Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. To signify its heritage, the univer ...

in 2000. He completed his thesis on the effect of

epitope An epitope, also known as antigenic determinant, is the part of an antigen that is recognized by the immune system, specifically by antibodies, B cells, or T cells. The epitope is the specific piece of the antigen to which an antibody binds. The p ...

density on

CD8+ cell CD8 (cluster of differentiation 8) is a transmembrane glycoprotein that serves as a co-receptor for the T-cell receptor (TCR). Along with the TCR, the CD8 co-receptor plays a role in T cell signaling and aiding with cytotoxic T cell-antigen inter ...

priming under the mentorship of Laurence "Ike" Eisenlohr.

Academic posts

Wherry continued on to a postdoctoral fellowship with

Rafi Ahmed Rafi Ahmed (born 1948 in Hyderabad, India) is an Indian-American virologist and immunologist. He is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University, where he is also the director of the Emory Vaccine Cente ...

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

from 2000 to 2004. After completing his postdoc, he joined The Wistar Institute as an assistant professor where he remained until 2010. He then joined the department of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. He served as the chair of the Immunology Graduate Group (IGG) from 2011 to 2013 and remains on the IGG Executive Committee. In 2012 he was appointed as director of the Institute for Immunology (IFI). Wherry was named the inaugural Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President's Distinguished Professor in 2017. A year later, Wherry was appointed as chair of the Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics department.

Research

Wherry's research has focused on the field of T cell exhaustion, elucidating mechanisms that attenuate T cell responses during chronic infections and

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. His discoveries include characterizing several immunological checkpoints and T cell states that can be targeted to re-invigorate exhausted T cells. Wherry's lab has played a prominent role in understanding the concept of human immune health using high-dimensional, integrative, translational immunology approaches.

Awards and honors

* 2018: Stand Up To Cancer Phillip A. Sharp Award * 2016: Cancer Research Institute's Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology * 2014 & 2016: Highly Cited Research and Rising Star by Thomson/Reuters ISI * 2014: "World's Most Influential Scientific Minds" Award by Thomson Reuters * 2014: Dr. Wherry received the distinguished Alumni Award from the Thomas Jefferson University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences * 2007: "America's Young Innovators-37 under 36" by the

Smithsonian Magazine ''Smithsonian'' is the official journal published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' maga ...

* 2006: New Scholar in Aging award from the Ellison Medical Foundation

References

External links

Cancer Immunotherapy 101 with Dr. E. John Wherry
''YouTube''. October 9, 2020.
"Immune Profiling of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients" by Dr. John Wherry
''YouTube''. June 17, 2020.
BBC x Penn Medicine: Dr. John Wherry
''YouTube''. May 6, 2019.
Wherry Lab website at University of Pennsylvania
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wherry, Edward John 03 American immunologists University of Pennsylvania faculty Pennsylvania State University alumni Thomas Jefferson University alumni Emory University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people