- Chair & Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor, Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
- Director, Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity
- Director, Colton Center for Autoimmunity and Institute for Immunology & Immune Health (I3H), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. E. John Wherry is the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor, Chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, Director of the Institute for Immunology and Immune Health (I3H), and Director of both the Penn Colton Center for Autoimmunity and the international Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He received his BS from Penn State University, his PhD from Thomas Jefferson University, and completed postdoctoral training at Emory University in the laboratory of Rafi Ahmed.
Dr. Wherry’s laboratory transformed the field of immunology by defining the molecular and transcriptional basis of T cell exhaustion in chronic viral infection and cancer, identifying the transcription factor TOX as a master regulator of exhausted T cell states. His group continues to lead the application of high-dimensional immune profiling and systems immunology to human disease, with major programs spanning autoimmunity, infectious disease, and cancer immunotherapy.
As I3H Director and head of the Penn Colton Center, Dr. Wherry leads Penn’s flagship immunology enterprise, anchoring a multi-institutional consortium spanning Penn, Yale, NYU, and Tel Aviv University. He is one of the most highly cited immunologists in the world and a frequent advisor to industry, federal agencies, and patient communities working to translate immunology into new therapies for autoimmune disease.