E. John Wherry

Dr. E. John Wherry is the Chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics in the Perelman School of Medicine, Director of the UPenn Institute for Immunology, and the Barbara and Richard Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor. He has helped pioneer the field of T cell exhaustion, assisting in identifying the role of the “checkpoint” molecule PD-1 and others for reinvigoration of exhausted T cells in cancer and defining the underlying molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of exhausted T cells. He has received numerous honors in his career, including the Distinguished Alumni award from the Thomas Jefferson University, the Cancer Research Institute’s Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology, and the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Wherry received his PhD from Thomas Jefferson University.