Marc Gavin, PhD

Background Information
Dr. Gavin received a BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and PhD in Immunology from the University of Washington. He pursued his postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington, where he also served as Research Assistant Professor. Following eight years as staff scientist of Inflammation Research at Amgen, he joined the Translational Research Program at the Benaroya Research Institute in 2015. In 2018, he joined Omeros Corporation as Director of Immunology.
Area of Research
In collaboration with Drs. Dan Campbell and Steve Ziegler, Dr. Gavin is focused on understanding how therapeutic manipulation of the balance between antigen-specific regulatory and effector T cells alters immune responses in settings of pathogenic inflammation, chronic infection, and cancer.
Featured Publications
Zhang M, Yu G, Chan B, Pearson JT, Rathanaswami P, Lim AC, Babcook J, Hsu H, Gavin MA. 2015. IL-21R blockade inhibits secondary humoral responses and halts the progression of pre-established disease in NZB/W F1 systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Rheumatol. 67:2723-31.
Swanson RM, Gavin MA, Escobar SS, Rottman JB, Lipsky BP, Dube S, Li L, Bigler J, Wolfson M, Arnett HA, Viney JL. 2013. Butyrophilin-like 2 modulates B7 costimulation to induce Foxp3 expression and regulatory T cell development in mature T cells. J Immunol. 190:2027.
Gavin MA, Rasmussen JP, Fontenot JD, Vasta V, Manganiello VC, Beavo JA, Rudensky AY. 2007. Foxp3-dependent programme of regulatory T-cell differentiation. Nature. 445:771-5.
Gavin MA, Torgerson TR, Houston E, DeRoos P, Ho WY, Stray-Pedersen A, Ocheltree EL, Greenberg PD, Ochs HD, Rudensky AY. 2006. Single cell analysis of normal and FOXP3-mutant human T cells: FOXP3 expression without regulatory T cell development. PNAS 103:6659-64.
Fontenot JD, Rasmussen JP, Gavin MA, Rudensky AY. 2005. A function for interleukin-2 in Foxp3-expressing regulatory T cells. Nat Immunol. 6:1142-1151.
Fontenot JD, Gavin MA, Rudensky AY. 2003. Foxp3 programs the development and function of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells. Nat Immunol. 4(4):330-6.
Gavin MA, Clarke SR, Negrou E, Gallegos A, Rudensky AY. 2002. Homeostasis and anergy of CD4+CD25+ suppressor T cells in vivo. Nat Immunol. 3(1):33-41.