Erika L. Pearce

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Erika Pearce
Born1972 (age 51–52)
North Fork, New York, U.S.
Alma materBSc, Cornell University
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis Development of CD8 T cell responses  (2005)
Website www.ie-freiburg.mpg.de/pearce

Erika L. Pearce is an American immunologist. She is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins University after serving as director and a scientific member at Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany. Her work investigates the connection between metabolism and immune cell function with a particular focus on the regulation of T-cells. In 2018, she was awarded the Leibniz Prize for her "outstanding work in metabolism and inflammation research".

Contents

Early life and education

Pearce was born in 1972, [1] and grew up in North Fork, Long Island, New York. [2] She completed her Bachelor of Science degree at Cornell University in 1998 and earned her PhD in cell and molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. [3] While completing her postdoctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Pearce began her research into how cellular metabolic processes govern immune responses to infection and cancer. [4]

Career

Upon completing her postdoctoral studies, Pearce joined the Trudeau Institute in New York City from 2009 until 2011. She left the non-profit in 2011 to become an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis. [1] During her tenure at WUSM, Pearce expanded on her earlier research into memory T cells. In 2012, her research team found that the production of additional mitochondria is triggered by interleukin-15. She also found that genetically manipulating T cell's mitochondria could cause a higher percentage of undifferentiated T cells to become memory cells. [5] Pearce and her colleagues also found evidence that suggested cancer cells could disable T cells ability to fight off tumors and some kinds of infection. Her research team found that withholding sugar from T cells, the cells no longer produced interferon gamma. [6] In March 2014, Pearce was promoted to the rank of associate professor of pathology and immunology at WUSM. [7] In her new role, Pearce received two grants to assist her research into cellular metabolism in immunity to infection. She received a grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund [8] and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. [9]

Pearce left North America in September 2015 to become the director and a scientific member at Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany. [10] In 2018, she was awarded the Leibniz Prize for her "outstanding work in metabolism and inflammation research." [1] Pearce returned to the United States in 2022 to become the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University. [11]

Publications

As of 2021, Pearce has more than 18,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 49. [12]

Highly cited articles (more than 1000 citations)

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Leibniz Prize 2018 for Erika Pearce". Max Planck Institute. December 14, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  2. ↑ O’Donnell, Marie Anne (July 2, 2018). "Erika Pearce: Fitting metabolism and immunity together, to a T". Journal of Cell Biology . 21 (7): 2223–2224. doi:10.1083/jcb.201806055. PMC   6028542 . PMID   29921602.
  3. ↑ "Erika L. Pearce, Ph.D." Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Diabetes drug may help fight cancer, mouse study suggests". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. June 3, 2009. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  5. ↑ Purdy, Michael C. (January 18, 2012). "Immune system memory cells have trick for self preservation". Washington University in St. Louis. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  6. ↑ Purdy, Michael C. (June 6, 2013). "Tumors disable immune cells by using up sugar". Washington University in St. Louis. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  7. ↑ "TRUSTEES GRANT FACULTY PROMOTIONS, TENURE". Washington University in St. Louis. April 21, 2014. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  8. ↑ Campbell, Russ (June 15, 2014). "BWF Invests $21 Million In Biomedical Research". Burroughs Wellcome Fund . Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  9. ↑ "Medical researcher Pearce receives nearly $1.8 million in grants". Washington University in St. Louis. August 11, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Erika Pearce – new director at the MPI-IE". Max-Planck-Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics. October 12, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  11. ↑ Cruickshank, Saralyn (April 6, 2021). "Molecular biologist Erika Pearce joins Johns Hopkins as Bloomberg Distinguished Professor". Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  12. ↑ Erika L. Pearce publications indexed by Google Scholar
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