Sherrie J. Divito, MD, PhD

Brigham And Women's Hospital

Academic Titles

Assistant Professor, Dermatology, Harvard Medical School

Research Program Affiliation

Member, Leukemia

Member, Cancer Immunology

Research Abstract

We are a translational immunology/dermatology lab studying severe skin diseases including graft-versus-host-disease, reactions/toxicities to anti-cancer therapies and delayed-type drug hypersensitivity reactions. These diseases carry significant morbidity and mortality and have limited treatment options. As a dermatologist specializing in oncodermatology/GVHD at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and inpatient dermatology at DFCI/Brigham and Women's Hospital, and a basic science trained immunologist, I and my research team are uniquely situated to directly recognize clinical needs in this field then use translational research approaches to directly impact patient care. Our research truly spans bedside to bench and back again, utilizing prospectively and retrospectively collected human/patient specimens as well has novel humanized mouse models of disease. We employ innovative technologies including multi-spectral immunofluorescent staining and microscopy, high throughput TCR sequencing, transcriptomics (nanostring, single cell RNAseq/CITEseq), laser capture microscopy, advanced flow cytometry, and immunopeptidomics, alongside traditional immunology techniques (ELISA, ELISPOT, mixed lymphocyte reactions, cell culture, cell sorting, western blot, etc). Our current work focuses on tissue resident memory T cells, antigen-presentation and T cell activation, as well as development of novel models and technologies to advance the field.