Wayne Hancock

Dr. Wayne Hancock undertook his medical, Ph.D., and pathology training in Australia before coming as a post-doc to Harvard Medical School and training in transplant immunology. He has worked with many of the pioneering figures in transplantation, as well as a stint in biotech in Boston, followed by moving to the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2001. His lab has a particular interest in Foxp3+ T-regulatory (Treg) cells. Finding ways to pharmacologically enhance Treg function for the sake of transplantation has led him into many studies of histone acetyltransferases and histone deacetylases, as well as the roles of other post-translational modifications in regulating Foxp3. Conversely, finding ways to impair Treg functions has important applications in immuno-oncology, including through the use of antisense oligonucleotides to knock down Foxp3. In support of these studies, he is funded by NIH/NIAID/NHLBI for transplant work and by NIH/NCI for his cancer immunology studies. Dr. Hancock has more than 75 papers on Foxp3+ Tregs and >400 papers overall in PubMed and an H-index of 110.