Jennifer Leiding, M.D., has joined Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, as associate director for clinical research in the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and assistant director of the Center for Cellular and Gene Therapy in the Cancer and Blood Disorders Institute (CBDI). She is also an associate professor of pediatrics (pending academic review) in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  

Leiding’s efforts will focus on strategic growth of, and mentorship in, clinical research and early-phase trials campus-wide, as well as cellular and gene therapies for cancer and blood disorders. She will also continue her research and national leadership in cooperative multicenter studies of primary immunodeficiency diseases, including chronic granulomatous disease and other rare diseases in children.

“We are extremely fortunate to have recruited Dr. Leiding with her strong background at the National Institutes of Health, in academic medicine and the pharmaceutical industry,” says Neil Goldenberg, M.D., Ph.D., associate dean for research on the Johns Hopkins All Children’s campus, ICTR director, Perry Family Endowed Professor for Clinical and Translational Research and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Her experience as part of a leadership team that recently brought a novel gene therapy for hematologic disease to FDA approval in children and adults will be invaluable as we continue to grow the research enterprise, pediatric clinical trial expertise and thought leadership at Johns Hopkins All Children’s, throughout Johns Hopkins Medicine, and beyond.”

Goldenberg adds, “Dr. Leiding’s passion for mentoring the next generation of pediatric clinical investigators is perfectly suited to the missions of our ICTR and CBDI. She has already had an incredible impact for mentees across North America. At Johns Hopkins All Children’s, she will mentor or co-mentor junior faculty, trainees and staff engaged in clinical research, provide support in pursuing external funding for investigator-led research, and share her expertise with participants in the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Clinical and Translational Research Training Track.”

Leiding obtained her bachelor’s degree in biology and M.D. from the University of South Florida. She completed pediatric residency at USF (where she spent much of her time at All Children’s Hospital) followed by a clinical and research fellowship in pediatric allergy and immunology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She was on the faculty at USF and the medical staff of All Children’s for nearly a decade. Before her recruitment to Johns Hopkins, Leiding served as a medical leader at bluebird bio, a biotech company focused on gene therapy.   

Leiding is internationally recognized for her expertise in the diagnosis, management, and hematopoietic cell transplant for chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), STAT1 gain-of-function, STAT3 gain-of-function and other primary immune regulatory disorders (PIRD). Leiding is also internationally recognized as a clinical trialist developing novel treatments for immunodeficiency. She serves on the steering committee of the Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium (PIDTC) and is the lead of the multi-institutional PIDTC natural history study investigating the role of inflammatory disease in CGD.

Recent contributions to science include several landmark manuscripts published in Blood and Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology describing transplant outcomes for CGD in North America, and transplant outcomes of an international group of patients with STAT1-gain-of-function. She was the lead author describing the natural history of 191 patients with the ultra-rare immunodeficiency, STAT3-gain-function syndrome from 33 countries. She has numerous manuscripts investigating and describing the molecular causes of autoinflammation and autoimmunity in CGD and other immunodysregulatory diseases and identification of best treatments for these patients.

Leiding was involved in developing consensus recommendations on the utility of genetic testing for the diagnosis of primary immunodeficiency diseases and the development of practice guidelines as a committee member for the CDC workgroup updating diagnostic criteria of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. She is actively developing consensus recommendations for the use of precision therapy for the treatment of PIRD and is a co-investigator in an international task force developing consensus guidelines for the use of jakinibs in the treatment of PIRD.

Leiding serves as Chair of the Basic and Clinical Immunology Interest Section and Past Chair of the Primary Immunodeficiency Committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, is the past Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee of the Clinical Immunology Society, and is on the medical advisory committee of the CGD Association of America.

Cassandra Josephson, M.D., CBDI director, Hawkins Family Endowed Chair and Professor of Oncology, Pediatrics and Pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine remarks, “Dr. Leiding is an incredibly important addition to our world-class malignant and non-malignant blood and marrow transplant program. Her research and clinical specialty in transplant immunology will enhance patient care, and her research work will have a national and international impact on children with hematologic and immunologic disease.”