Arlene H. Sharpe

Arlene Sharpe, MD, PhD is the Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University 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 and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and Vice Director of the Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School.

A leader in T cell costimulation, her laboratory discovered and elucidated functions of T cell costimulatory pathways, including immunoinhibitory functions of the CTLA-4 and PD-1 pathways, which laid the foundation for immune checkpoint blockade therapy in cancer. Her laboratory investigates the roles of T cell costimulatory pathways in regulating T cell tolerance, antimicrobial and antitumor immunity, and translating this understanding into therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer. Sharpe earned her MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Sharpe has published over 400 papers and was listed by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate as one of the most Highly Cited Researchers (top 1%) in 2014-2023 and a 2016 Citation Laureate. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, as well as a Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research, National Academy of Inventors, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and the American Association of Immunologists.