Gerald Pier, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School & Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Gerald Pier, Ph.D., is a Professor of Medicine (microbiology and immunology) at Harvard Medical School and a microbiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of California, Berkeley, and then had a National Research Council post-doctoral fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Division of Infectious Diseases. His research focuses on vaccines and antibody therapeutics, microbial pathogenesis and host-pathogen interactions. These studies concentrate on discovery and development of vaccine targets, the molecular and cellular basis for chronic infections, identifying microbial fitness factors and their impact on antimicrobial resistance, overall issues related to virulence and pathogenesis and overcoming drug resistance. His lab has discovered, developed and moved into human testing several vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapeutics for various pathogens.
Pier has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers, edited an immunology textbook for ASM Press and contributed chapters to the major textbooks of medicine and infectious diseases. He has served on numerous NIH Study Sections as a full member, is an elected member of the American Academy of °®¶¹´«Ã½, an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of numerous professional organizations. Newer projects being pursued involve investigations into how the microbiota is directly involved in inflammatory tissue destruction in Alzheimer’s disease, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and graft-versus-host disease. These studies are showing positive results indicating that the broadly expressed microbial surface polysaccharide poly-N-acetyl glucosamine (PNAG) is a vaccine target that can prevent these diseases.
Pier has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers, edited an immunology textbook for ASM Press and contributed chapters to the major textbooks of medicine and infectious diseases. He has served on numerous NIH Study Sections as a full member, is an elected member of the American Academy of °®¶¹´«Ã½, an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of numerous professional organizations. Newer projects being pursued involve investigations into how the microbiota is directly involved in inflammatory tissue destruction in Alzheimer’s disease, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease and graft-versus-host disease. These studies are showing positive results indicating that the broadly expressed microbial surface polysaccharide poly-N-acetyl glucosamine (PNAG) is a vaccine target that can prevent these diseases.