Pete Savage appointed chair of Committee on Immunology at the University of Chicago

Newswise — Pete Savage, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology, has been appointed as chair of the Committee on Immunology (COI), effective April 1, 2024.

Savage’s research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating immune tolerance and the immune response to cancer, with special emphasis on the biology of Foxp3-expressing regulatory T cells, self-reactive conventional T cell populations, and tumor-associated T cells.

Savage received his BA in Biochemistry from the University of Virginia and earned a PhD in Cancer Biology at the Stanford University of School of Medicine working with Mark Davis. Following postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with James Allison, he joined the University of Chicago faculty in 2009.

Since his arrival at UChicago, Savage has been an active member of the COI, the Committee on Cancer Biology, and the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC). Since 2018, he has served as the Director of the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Immunology T32 that supports graduate education in COI. From 2016-2023 he served as the Co-Leader of the Immunology & Cancer Group within the UCCCC with Tom Gajewski. Savage has also directly mentored 13 graduate students and taught numerous graduate courses, including a Cancer Immunology course developed with Justin Kline.

As chair, Savage will follow Bana Jabri, MD, PhD, who has chaired the committee since July 2020. Jabri has accepted a prestigious position as Director of the Imagine Institute in Paris, France, beginning in January 2025. During her tenure, she implemented the computational systems immunology track in collaboration with Luis Barreiro and Samantha Riesenfeld. She also opened various committees to students, including the recruitment committee, and established a committee for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Jabri enhanced human immunology research in the BSD by recruiting two outstanding faculty members and by creating the Human Disease and Immune Discovery Core. Finally, she strengthened the COI faculty body alongside the late Albert Bendelac, who led the recruitment efforts for three outstanding investigators in the field of mucosal immunology, molecular immunology, and innate and adaptive immunity.