Jeffrey Bluestone

Jeffrey Allen Bluestone (born in 1953) is an American researcher who is the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Metabolism and Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco,

Early life and education Jeffrey A. Bluestone was born in 1953 in Ft. Sill, OK. Bluestone earned his undergraduate and masters degrees in microbiology from Rutgers State University, and his doctoral degree in immunology from Cornell Graduate School of Medical Science. to direct the UCSF Diabetes Center and metabolic research unit. Beginning at least 2011, Bluestone headed the Immune Tolerance Network, a consortium of over 1000 scientists to focus efforts on the development of immune tolerance therapies, a position that as of January 2022 he listed as a previous one at his UCSF profile.

Bluestone became UCSF's interim vice chancellor of research in 2008.

Since this date, Bluestone has been a member of the editorial board for Immunity.

Research

As of January 2022, Bluestone's research group focuses on studying the role of T cell receptors on regulatory T cells ("Tregs"). In the early 90s, he identified the role of CD28 and its interaction with CTLA-4 The development of soluble receptors of CTLA-4 led to the development of the drugs abatacept and later belatacept. Further work with James P. Allison to target CTLA-4 resulted in the development of immune checkpoint therapies also known as immunotherapy. This led to the clinical development of ipilimumab (Yervoy™), which was approved in 2011 by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Their current work on understanding Tregs has been discussed as an avenue to further developments in the treatment Type 1 Diabetes.

Awards and recognition Bluestone was elected as a fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006, and as a member of the National Academy of Medicine.. In 2023, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

He has received the Mary Tyler Moore and Robert Levine Excellence in Clinical Research Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and an award for distinguished alumni from his doctoral institution.