We are honored to announce Dr. Arlene Sharpe is the recipient of the 2025 Excellence in Immunology Award (EXCELL)!
The International Union of Immunological Societies proudly recognizes Dr. Arlene Sharpe for her pioneering contributions to the field of immunology and her inspiring leadership as a woman in science. As the recipient of the prestigious EXCELL Award, Dr. Sharpe joins a growing legacy of excellence, innovation, and impact in global immunology.
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. She earned her MD and PhD from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. 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. Today 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.
Dr. 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 received the 2014 William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology, the 2017 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, the 2020 SITC Smalley Award, and the 2023 Switzer Prize. In 2022, she received the FASEB Excellence in Science Lifetime Achievement Award, AAI Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Rous-Whipple Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology. In 2024, Dr. Sharpe received the Harrington Prize for Innovation in Medicine and the David and Beatrix Hamburg Award for Advances in Biomedical Research and Clinical Medicine from the National Academy of Medicine. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences 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.
Join us at IUIS 2025 in Vienna, where Dr. Sharpe will deliver a lecture showcasing her remarkable work on August 21, 15:00 – 15:30 CEST.
Let’s come together to learn from her expertise, celebrate her achievements, and honor her dedication to advancing science.
