Arlene Sharpe, M.D., Ph.D.
Institute Member
Arlene Sharpe is an institute member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the George Fabyan Professor of Comparative Pathology and chair of the Department of Immunology at Harvard Medical School. She is a member of the Department of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and co-director of the Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Sharpe is a leader in the field of T cell co-stimulation. Her laboratory has defined the functions of T cell co-stimulatory and immune checkpoint inhibition molecules, including the immune-inhibitory functions of the CTLA-4 and PD-1 pathways — knowledge that has provided critical translational insights that have underpinned the development of immunotherapies for cancer. Her laboratory currently focuses on elucidating the roles of T cell co-stimulatory and co-inhibitory pathways in regulating T cell tolerance and effective antimicrobial and antitumor immunity, and translating fundamental understanding of these immunoregulatory pathways into new therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.
Sharpe has published over 300 papers and was listed by Thomas Reuters as one of the most highly cited researchers (top 1%) in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018, and as a 2016 Citation Laureate. She received the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Tumor Immunology in 2014 and the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize in 2017 for her contributions to the discovery of PD-1 pathway.
Sharpe earned her A.B. from Harvard University and her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard Medical School. She completed residency training in pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is board certified in anatomic pathology. Sharpe has served as a member and chair of the NIH Hypersensitivity, Autoimmunity, and Immune-mediated Diseases (HAI) Study Section and as a member of the NIAID Council. She also served as president of the American Association of Immunologists from 2016-2017. Sharpe is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine.
