Jonathan D. Cherry, PhD

Assistant Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

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 Chobanian and Avedisian 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 extend 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 disease including Alzheimer’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, frontotemporal lobar degeneration, motor neuron diseases, and others.

Publications

  • Published 4/9/2026

    Calderazzo SM, Butler MLMD, Breen K, Kanner H, Tripodis Y, Stein TD, Holtzman DM, Cherry JD, Huber BR, McKee AC. Meningeal and infiltrating T-cells are associated with repetitive head trauma and tau-mediated neurodegeneration in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2026 Apr 09. PMID: 41957675.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/14/2026

    Pennington HE, Shapiro D, Empawi J, Aytan N, Alvarez V, Mez J, Alosco ML, Zhang X, McKee AC, Stein TD, Cherry JD, Labadorf A. Proteomic Analysis of Human Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Brain Implicates Proteasome and Ribosome Dysfunction in Disease Progression. bioRxiv. 2026 Feb 14. PMID: 41726919.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 12/28/2025

    Zheng Y, Sharma H, Betke M, Cherry JD, Mez JB, Beane JE, Kolachalama VB. FourierMIL: Fourier Filtering-based Multiple Instance Learning for Whole Slide Image Analysis. Int J Comput Vis. 2026; 134(1):26. PMID: 41472916.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 12/1/2025

    Stein T, Breen K, Aytan N, Hawkins S, Nicks R, Alvarez V, Mez J, Blusztajn J, Cherry J, McKee A, Lin H. Duration of contact sports play associated with aberrant DNA methylation in human frontal cortex. Res Sq. 2025 Dec 01. PMID: 41377989.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/20/2025

    Hartman S, Aytan N, Nicks R, Hawkins S, Cherry J, Alvarez VE, Meng G, Tripodis Y, Martin B, Palmisano J, Goldstein LE, Katz DI, Dwyer B, Daneshvar DH, Crary JF, Alosco M, Xia W, McKee AC, Mez J, Stein TD. Genetic variation in TMEM106B alters microglial activation and cytokine responses in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Acta Neuropathol. 2025 Nov 20; 150(1):54. PMID: 41264095.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 70 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Assistant Professor, Neurology
    Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Websites

Education

  • University of Rochester, PhD
  • Ursinus College, BS

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