Sarah Gaffen, Ph.D.

Dr. Sarah Gaffen is the Gerald P. Rodnan Endowed Professor in the Division of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Gaffen did her undergraduate training at Carnegie Mellon University and received a PhD from The University of California, Berkeley under the guidance of National Academy of Science member Dr. Marian Koshland. Dr. Gaffen did postdoctoral work at UC San Francisco and was on the faculty at SUNY Buffalo from 1999-2008. At Buffalo Dr. Gaffen initiated her research on defining mechanisms of signaling by the then-enigmatic IL-17 receptor cytokine family. 

Since 2008 Dr Gaffen has been at the University of Pittsburgh, and was honored with the Gerald P. Rodnan Chair in 2015.. Dr. Gaffen is a pioneer of studies of the signaling functions and structural features of the IL-17 receptor. The Gaffen Lab also works on understanding the basis for immunity to infections and autoimmunity, with a major interest in the mechanisms that underlie oral mucosal immunity and antifungal host defense. Her group was the first to demonstrate a role for IL-17 pathways in immunity to mucosal Candida albicans infections. Additionally, her work has uncovered important post-transcriptional pathways that determine IL-17 signaling cascades. 

Dr. Gaffen has published over 160 papers and Chaired the standing NIH study section “Immunity and Host Defense.” She was awarded the 2020 BioLegend/William E. Paul Award from the International Cytokine & Interferon Society and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, AAI and the AAAS. Dr. Gaffen served as President-Elect and President of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society from 2021-2025, and remains highly active in this organization. Her group has been continually funded by NIH and other organizations since 2001, and has mentored 14 students to completion of a PhD. Her trainees work all over the world in both academia and industry.