Scientific Director, National Institute of Arthritis Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Dr. John O’Shea has performed outstanding research on how cytokines transmit signals to the cell interior of T cells and innate lymphocytes so as to evoke and direct subsequent immune responses. This work has led to a better understanding of the effects of mutations in these signaling pathway genes on immune function. Among the first to clone the protein kinase JAK3, O’Shea identified its crucial role in cytokine signaling and, based in large part on this work, pharmacological Jak inhibitors have been developed as a new class of immunomodulatory drugs. He has received numerous awards, including the Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Research in Arthritis: the U.S. Public Health Service Physician Researcher of the Year Award and the Paul Bunn Award in Infectious Disease.
