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Jordan Pober, MD, PhD

Bayer Professor of Translational Medicine and Professor of Immunobiology, Pathology and Dermatology
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Additional Titles

Director, Human and Translational Immunology Program

Vice-Chair, Dept. of Immunobiology for the Section of Human and Translational Immunology

About

Titles

Bayer Professor of Translational Medicine and Professor of Immunobiology, Pathology and Dermatology

Director, Human and Translational Immunology Program; Vice-Chair, Dept. of Immunobiology for the Section of Human and Translational Immunology

Biography

Dr. Pober was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1949 and grew up in the New York City metropolitan area. He attended Haverford College, graduating summa cum laude in 1971 with high honors in Biology, Chemistry and History. He was admitted to Yale’s Medical Scientist Training Program, receiving his MD and his PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry with Prof. Lubert Stryer in 1977. He completed his first year of pathology residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1978, was a post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Jack Strominger in the Department of Biochemistry at Harvard University from 1978 through 1980, and completed pathology training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1981. He worked as an attending Pathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital from 1981-1991, serving as an Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School during the same period.

He returned to Yale Medical School in 1991 as a Professor of Pathology and Immunobiology, and also became a Professor of Dermatology in 1998. Dr. Pober was named the Director of the Molecular Cardiobiology Program at the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine in 1991 and founded the Vascular Biology and Transplantation (VBT) Program, which succeeded Molecular Cardiobiology, in 1999. In 2007, he stepped down as the director of the VBT program, becoming Professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of Immunobiology for the Section of Human and Translational Immunology. He was named Ensign Professor of Immunobiology in 2011 and Bayer Professor of Translational Medicine in 2012. Dr. Pober has been honored as a Searle Scholar, an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association and a MERIT awardee of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. He received the Warner Lambert-Parke Davis award in 1988 and the Rous Whipple Award in 2011 from the American Society of Investigative Pathology, the Earl Benditt award from the North American Vascular Biology Organization in 2014 and the Basic Science Established Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplantation in 2018. He has served as an Editor of Immunity and Co-Editor-in Chief of Laboratory Investigation, leading immunology and pathology journals, respectively. He also has served as President of the North American Vascular Biology Organization. He is co-founder and co-director of the Joint Yale-Cambridge University Biomedical Research Program, is a visiting fellow in the Dept. of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, and was elected a Fellow Commoner of Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge in 2012. .

Dr. Pober’s research involves understanding the functions of blood vessels and vascular cells in human inflammatory and immune responses and, reciprocally, how inflammation and immunity affect vascular health and function. He is particularly interested in how insights from experiments with human cells and tissues and with humanized mice can be used to improve organ replacement therapy, to improve tissue engineering and to regenerate injured tissues.

Appointments

Education & Training

PhD
Yale University, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (1977)
MD
Yale University (1977)
AB
Haverford College, Biol/Chem/History (1971)
Resident
Yale-New Haven Hospital
Resident
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Fellow
Harvard University

Research

Overview

Our research addresses three interrelated problems in the immunobiology and pathology of vascular endothelial cells. First, we examine and analyze the consequences that ensue when human T lymphocytes recognize specific antigens presented by human vascular endothelial cells, pericytes or smooth muscle cells in comparison to recognition of antigens presented by professional antigen presenting cells or by tissue cells (e.g., fibroblasts).

Second, we examine the signaling pathways activated by T cells or their products (e.g., cytokines) or by B cell products (e.g., antibodies) and the transcriptional regulation of cytokine-induced molecules, such as leukocyte adhesion molecules, within vascular endothelial cells. We also study how these signals differentially affect various segements of the vascular tree such as arteries, capillaries or post-capillary venules. Third, we analyze the pathways of cell injury (e.g., apoptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis) in vascular endothelial cells induced by leukocytes and their products as well as responses made by endothelial cells to resist such injury.

Our experimental approaches involve use of normal and genetically-modified (i.e., transfected) cell populations in culture, use of chimeric animals, (e.g., immunodeficient mice doubly engrafted with human blood vessels and with human lymphocytes), and use of discarded human tissues from control and disease settings. These studies may lead to novel, vascular cell-directed therapies for modifying immune and inflammatory diseases. A particular focus of our work is on modifying the behavior of endothelial cells to improve outcomes of clinical transplantation and tissue engineering.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Cytokines; Endothelial Cells; Immune System; Immune System Diseases; Translational Research, Biomedical; Transplantation Immunology

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of Jordan Pober's published research.

Publications

2024

2023

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • honor

    Election

  • honor

    Bohmfalk Prize for Teaching in the Basic Sciences

  • honor

    Basic Science Established Investigator Award

  • honor

    Earl Benditt Award

  • honor

    Rous-Whipple Award

Get In Touch

Contacts

Academic Office Number
Office Fax Number
Mailing Address

Immunobiology

PO Box 208089

New Haven, CT 06520-8089

United States

Administrative Support