Jeff Bluestone PhD, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors bestowed on American scientists. "I am humbled by this honor," he said. "I have always believed that we are only as good as the people we train and collaborate with and I've had the privilege of partnering with so many great people."
With more than 500 published papers, Bluestone has helped to advance understanding of the basic processes that control T-cell activation and immune tolerance in autoimmunity, organ transplantation and cancer. His research has informed the development of multiple immunotherapies, including the recently FDA-approved, anti-human CD3 antibody teplizumab for type 1 diabetes; the first FDA-approved drug targeting T-cell co-stimulation to treat autoimmune disease and organ transplantation; and the first CTLA-4 antagonist drugs approved for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.
“Jeff is an excellent scientist who prioritizes taking fundamental T-cell biology all the way to the clinic, and that makes him quite special,” said Mark Anderson MD PhD, "this latest honor is a testament to the profound impact he has had on the field of immunology and diabetes, including being a champion for the first immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes, teplizumab.”
Bluestone has received numerous accolades for his work, including election to the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Science; and receipt of the Gerold & Kayla Grodsky Distinguished Basic Scientist Award, the Mary Tyler Moore & Robert Levine Excellence in Clinical Research Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the Steinman Award for Human Immunology Research from the American Association of Immunologists. He served as UCSF’s executive vice chancellor and provost from 2010-2015 and was the A.W. Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor of Metabolism and Endocrinology until his retirement in 2022.
An academic leader on a national and international scale, Bluestone was the founding director of the Immune Tolerance Network, the largest NIH-funded multicenter clinical immunology research program, testing novel immunotherapies in transplantation, autoimmunity, and asthma/allergy. He was also the founding director and CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and has trained more than 100 students, postdocs and fellows.
"I feel very fortunate to be able to come to work every day to live my passion along with talented people committed to changing the lives of patients with devastating diseases," Bluestone concludes.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit scholarly society established by a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and – with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine – provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.