Erika L. Pearce is an American immunologist. She is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins University after serving as director and a scientific member at Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany. Her work investigates the connection between metabolism and immune cell function with a particular focus on the regulation of T-cells. In 2018, she was awarded the Leibniz Prize for her "outstanding work in metabolism and inflammation research".

Pearce was born in 1972,^[1] and grew up in North Fork, Long Island, New York.^[2] She completed her Bachelor of Science degree at Cornell University in 1998 and earned her PhD in cell and molecular biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005.^[3] While completing her postdoctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Pearce began her research into how cellular metabolic processes govern immune responses to infection and cancer.^[4]

Upon completing her postdoctoral studies, Pearce joined the Trudeau Institute in New York City from 2009 until 2011. She left the non-profit in 2011 to become an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis.^[1] During her tenure at WUSM, Pearce expanded on her earlier research into memory T cells. In 2012, her research team found that the production of additional mitochondria is triggered by interleukin-15. She also found that genetically manipulating T cell's mitochondria could cause a higher percentage of undifferentiated T cells to become memory cells.^[5] Pearce and her colleagues also found evidence that suggested cancer cells could disable T cells ability to fight off tumors and some kinds of infection. Her research team found that withholding sugar from T cells, the cells no longer produced interferon gamma.^[6] In March 2014, Pearce was promoted to the rank of associate professor of pathology and immunology at WUSM.^[7] In her new role, Pearce received two grants to assist her research into cellular metabolism in immunity to infection. She received a grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund^[8] and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.^[9]

Pearce left North America in September 2015 to become the director and a scientific member at Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg, Germany.^[10] In 2018, she was awarded the Leibniz Prize for her "outstanding work in metabolism and inflammation research."^[1] Pearce returned to the United States in 2022 to become the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University.^[11]

As of 2021, Pearce has more than 18,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 49.^[12]

• Gubin, Matthew M.; Zhang, Xiuli; Schuster, Heiko; Caron, Etienne; Ward, Jeffrey P.; Noguchi, Takuro; Ivanova, Yulia; Hundal, Jasreet; Arthur, Cora D.; Krebber, Willem-Jan; Mulder, Gwenn E.; Toebes, Mireille; Vesely, Matthew D.; Lam, Samuel S. K.; Korman, Alan J.; Allison, James P.; Freeman, Gordon J.; Sharpe, Arlene H.; Pearce, Erika L.; Schumacher, Ton N.; Aebersold, Ruedi; Rammensee, Hans-Georg; Melief, Cornelis J. M.; Mardis, Elaine R.; Gillanders, William E.; Artyomov, Maxim N.; Schreiber, Robert D. (26 November 2014). "Checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapy targets tumour-specific mutant antigens". Nature. 515 (7528). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 577–581. Bibcode:2014Natur.515..577G. doi:10.1038/nature13988. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 4279952. PMID 25428507.
• Chang, Chih-Hao; Qiu, Jing; O’Sullivan, David; Buck, Michael D.; Noguchi, Takuro; Curtis, Jonathan D.; Chen, Qiongyu; Gindin, Mariel; Gubin, Matthew M.; van der Windt, Gerritje J.W.; Tonc, Elena; Schreiber, Robert D.; Pearce, Edward J.; Pearce, Erika L. (2015). "Metabolic Competition in the Tumor Microenvironment Is a Driver of Cancer Progression". Cell. 162 (6). Elsevier BV: 1229–1241. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.08.016. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 4864363. PMID 26321679. S2CID 10739910.
• Chang, Chih-Hao; Curtis, Jonathan D.; Maggi, Leonard B.; Faubert, Brandon; Villarino, Alejandro V.; O’Sullivan, David; Huang, Stanley Ching-Cheng; van der Windt, Gerritje J.W.; Blagih, Julianna; Qiu, Jing; Weber, Jason D.; Pearce, Edward J.; Jones, Russell G.; Pearce, Erika L. (2013). "Posttranscriptional Control of T Cell Effector Function by Aerobic Glycolysis". Cell. 153 (6). Elsevier BV: 1239–1251. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2013.05.016. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 3804311. PMID 23746840.
• Pearce, Erika L.; Walsh, Matthew C.; Cejas, Pedro J.; Harms, Gretchen M.; Shen, Hao; Wang, Li-San; Jones, Russell G.; Choi, Yongwon (3 June 2009). "Enhancing CD8 T-cell memory by modulating fatty acid metabolism". Nature. 460 (7251). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 103–107. Bibcode:2009Natur.460..103P. doi:10.1038/nature08097. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 2803086. PMID 19494812.
• van der Windt, Gerritje J.W.; Everts, Bart; Chang, Chih-Hao; Curtis, Jonathan D.; Freitas, Tori C.; Amiel, Eyal; Pearce, Edward J.; Pearce, Erika L. (2012). "Mitochondrial Respiratory Capacity Is a Critical Regulator of CD8+ T Cell Memory Development". Immunity. 36 (1). Elsevier BV: 68–78. doi:10.1016/j.immuni.2011.12.007. ISSN 1074-7613. PMC 3269311. PMID 22206904.

• Timeline of women in science

• Erika L. Pearce publications indexed by Google Scholar