Jason Cyster

Jason G. Cyster is an Australian-born American immunologist known for his work on lymphocyte migration, cell interaction dynamics in immunity, and the role of lipid mediators such as sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) in immune cell trafficking. He is currently a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Early life and education Cyster was born and raised in rural Western Australia, where he spent much of his youth working on a farm. He attended boarding school in Perth for his final years of secondary education and was awarded the prestigious Beazley Award for achieving the highest aggregate score on Australia’s Tertiary Entrance Exams in his state.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of Western Australia in 1988, where he developed an early interest in immunology. He then completed his PhD in Immunology at the University of Oxford in 1992 under the mentorship of Alan Williams (immunologist), focusing on the characterization of the CD43 molecule. He also collaborated with Paul C. Driscoll and Ian Campbell on structural analyses of the T cell antigen CD2.

Research

Cyster’s laboratory studies how immune cells navigate within lymphoid organs and barrier tissues to mount effective immune responses. His work combines genetic, molecular, and real-time imaging approaches to uncover mechanisms of:

Cell migration and chemoattraction

He helped identify critical roles for chemokines and lipid mediators in orchestrating immune cell positioning.

1989–1992 – Commonwealth Overseas Studentship 1992–1995 – Cancer Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship

1996–2000 – Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences

1997 – Cheryl Whitlock Memorial Prize for Postdoctoral Studies 1998–2003 – David and Lucile Packard Fellowship

2010 - Cancer Research Institute Fredrick W. Alt Award

2011 - American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow

2014 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences

2018 - Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

2018 - AAI Biolegend Herzenberg Award