Gerald T. Nepom, MD, PhD

Dr. Nepom received his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Harvard. He attended the University of Washington, receiving his PhD in Biochemistry in 1977 and his MD in 1978. After post-doctoral work in immunogenetics in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, he returned to Seattle, joining the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington Medical School Faculty in 1982.

Since 1985 he has been Member and Director of the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason. In April 2010, Dr. Nepom was named Director of the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).  Dr. Nepom is also immediate past president of FOCIS, the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies, a world-wide professional organization dedicated to interdisciplinary research and education in translational immunology.

Dr. Nepom also maintains an active basic and translational research laboratory focused on identifying and understanding molecular and genetic mechanisms contributing to triggering of autoimmune disorders. A combination of in vitro studies, preclinical models, and human T cell profiling is used to evaluate autoreactive T cell lineage and fate determination. Translational and clinical applications include evaluation of the role of HLA class II genes in the etiology of type I diabetes and adult and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and use of immunological monitoring tools for predicting disease susceptibility and response to therapy in clinical trials.