Jon Cherry

Background

Dr. Cherry is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He completed his undergraduate studies with a BS in biology at Ursinus College in 2008. He earned his doctoral degree in Pathology from the University of Rochester in 2015. Dr. Cherry joined the McKee laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher the same year. He was appointed as an assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine in 2019. Dr. Cherry also holds a research health scientist position within the VA Boston Healthcare System. His laboratory space is located at the Jamaica Plain VA hospital where he performs his research and helps support the VA-BU-CLF brain bank.

Research Interests

Dr. Cherry’s research interests focus on understanding how neuroinflammation after repetitive traumatic brain injury contributes to CTE pathogenesis. Specifically, Dr. Cherry seeks to identify what role microglia and inflammatory cytokines play in the early onset of hyperphosphorylated tau accumulation and spread.

Dr. Cherry’s research also extends to histology analysis. He is the director of the digital pathology hub present within the BU CTE Center. This research entails exploring novel ways to analyze human postmortem tissue for neuropathologic targets and better characterize pathology across a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, motor neuron diseases, and others.

Grant Funding

VA Career Development Award BX004349

Title: Identification of the neuroinflammatory signature for CTE using single nucleus RNA sequencing

Major Goals: Determine the full genetic phenotype and CNS location of neuroinflammatory cells after head trauma and during CTE using next generation sequencing technology.

Boston University Medical Center profile

Select Publications

A full list of publications can be found here

1. Cherry JD, Tripodis Y, Alvarez VE, Huber B, Kiernan PT, Daneshvar DH, Mez J, Montenigro PH, Solomon TM, Alosco ML, Stern RA, McKee AC and Stein TD. Microglial neuroinflammation contributes to tau accumulation in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Acta Neuropathol Commun 4(1): 112. 2016. PMID: 27793189
2. Cherry JD, Kim SH, Stein TD, Pothast MJ, Nicks R, Meng G, Huber BR, Mez J, Alosco ML, Tripodis Y, Farrell K, Alvarez VE, McKee AC and Crary JF. Evolution of neuronal and glial tau isoforms in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Brain Pathol 30(5): 913-925. 2020. PMID: 32500646
3. Cherry JD, Meng G, Daley S, Xia W, Svirsky S, Alvarez VE, Nicks R, Pothast M, Kelley H, Huber B, Tripodis Y, Alosco ML, Mez J, McKee AC and Stein TD. CCL2 is associated with microglia and macrophage recruitment in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. J Neuroinflammation 17(1): 370. 2020. PMID: 33278887
4. Butler M, Dixon E, Stein TD, Alvarez VE, Huber B, Buckland ME, McKee AC and Cherry JD. Tau Pathology in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is Primarily Neuronal. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2022. PMID: 35903039
5. Cherry JD, Baucom ZH, Eppich KG, Kirsch D, Dixon ER, Tripodis Y, Bieniek KF, Farrell K, Whitney K, Uretsky M, Crary JF, Dickson D and McKee AC. Neuroimmune proteins can differentiate between tauopathies. J Neuroinflammation 19(1): 278. 2022. PMID: 36403052