Hidde Ploegh

An acclaimed researcher whose work focuses on the immune system, Hidde Ploegh joined The Whitehead Institute in 2005. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Pathology at the Harvard Medical School where he headed the school’s immunology program since 1997. Ploegh has also been a Professor of Biology at MIT, working primarily in the Center for Cancer Research. Ploegh has been interested in the molecular mechanisms by which the immune system responds to antigens—substances such as toxins, bacteria, or foreign cells from transplants which, when entering the body, trigger the production of antibodies. His recent focus has been on how certain viral proteins interfere with this process. Ploegh’s research has contributed to the understanding of the immune system. He discovered a new mechanism by which viruses evade the immune system. Ploegh and his coworkers have been particularly interested in generating the chemical tools with which to probe a particular family of enzymes called proteas