Jonathan D. Cherry, PhD
Assistant Professor
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

PhD, University of Rochester
BS, Ursinus College



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.

Assistant Professor
Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Neurology




Digital Neurodegenerative Pathology After Repetitive Head Impacts
05/07/2025 - 04/30/2030 (Multi-PI)
PI: Jonathan D. Cherry, PhD
NIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke
1R01NS142076-01

Characterization of the spatial and temporal response to tau in chronic traumatic encephalopathy
12/01/2024 - 11/30/2029 (Multi-PI)
PI: Jonathan D. Cherry, PhD
NIH/National Institute on Aging
1R01AG090553-01

Personnel Agreement for Research Services of Jonathan Cherry
07/01/2016 - 06/30/2024 (Key Person)
PI: Ann C. McKee, MD
VA Boston Healthcare System


Single Cell profiling of MAPT S305 mutation iPSC-derived organoids and brain tissue
07/01/2021 - 06/30/2022 (Subcontract PI)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Bright Focus Fdn


Unique Neuroimmune Signature in Alzheimer's Disease Compared to CTE
10/01/2017 - 03/31/2021 (PI)
Alzheimer's Association




Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

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  1. Kanner H, Tilton C, Alvarez VE, Stein TD, McKee AC, Cherry JD. Comparison of multiple quantitative strategies for neuropathologic image analyses. J Neuropathol Exp Neurol. 2025 Oct 01; 84(10):928-940.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40814960; PMCID: PMC12456881; DOI: 10.1093/jnen/nlaf098;
     
  2. Butler MLMD, Pervaiz N, Breen K, Calderazzo S, Ypsilantis P, Wang Y, Breda JC, Mazzilli S, Nicks R, Spurlock E, Hefti MM, Fiock KL, Huber BR, Alvarez VE, Stein TD, Campbell JD, McKee AC, Cherry JD. Repeated head trauma causes neuron loss and inflammation in young athletes. Nature. 2025 Nov; 647(8088):228-237.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40963024
     
  3. Bindra GS, Asad S, Shanaa J, Lui F, Budson AE, Turk KW, Cherry JD. Neuroinflammatory mechanisms may help identify candidate biomarkers in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Free Neuropathol. 2025; 6:15.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40666430; PMCID: PMC12261625; DOI: 10.17879/freeneuropathology-2025-6382;
     
  4. Li S, Malamut M, McKee A, Cherry JD, Tian L. Age-informed, attention-based weakly supervised learning for neuropathological image assessment. bioRxiv. 2025 May 22. PMID: 40475529; PMCID: PMC12139986; DOI: 10.1101/2025.05.16.654510;
     
  5. Han X, Zhang Y, Petrosky JN, Bald S, Sherva RM, Labadorf A, Cherry JD, Chung J, Farrell K, Abdolmohammadi B, Durape S, Martin BM, Palmisano JN, Farrell JJ, Alvarez VE, Huber BR, Dwyer B, Daneshvar DH, Dams-O'Connor K, Jun GR, Lunetta KL, Goldstein LE, Katz DI, Cantu RC, Shenton ME, Cummings JL, Reiman EM, Stern RA, Alosco ML, Tripodis Y, Farrer LA, Stein TD, Crary JF, McKee AC, Mez J. A structural haplotype in the 17q21.31 MAPT region is associated with increased risk for chronic traumatic encephalopathy endophenotypes. Cell Rep Med. 2025 May 20; 6(5):102084.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40239644; PMCID: PMC12147854; DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102084;
     
  6. Dong G, Ma CC, Mao S, Naik SM, Brown KS, McDonough GA, Kim J, Kirkham SL, Cherry JD, Uretsky M, Spurlock E, McKee AC, Huang AY, Miller MB, Lee EA, Walsh CA. Diverse somatic genomic alterations in single neurons in chronic traumatic encephalopathy. bioRxiv. 2025 Mar 04.View Related Profiles. PMID: 40093089; PMCID: PMC11908173; DOI: 10.1101/2025.03.03.641217;
     
  7. Kong G, Song Y, Yan Y, Calderazzo SM, Saddala MS, De Labastida Rivera F, Cherry JD, Eckman N, Appel EA, Velenosi A, Swarup V, Kawaguchi R, Ng SS, Kwon BK, Gate D, Engwerda CR, Zhou L, Di Giovanni S. Clonally expanded, targetable, natural killer-like NKG7 T cells seed the aged spinal cord to disrupt myeloid-dependent wound healing. Neuron. 2025 Mar 05; 113(5):684-700.e8.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39809279
     
  8. Nicks R, Shah A, Stathas SA, Kirsch D, Horowitz SM, Saltiel N, Calderazzo SM, Butler MLMD, Cormier KA, Aytan N, Tu-Zahra F, Mathias R, Faheem F, Marcus S, Spurlock E, Fishbein L, Esnault CD, Boden A, Rosen G, Xia W, Daley S, Meng G, Martin BR, Daneshvar DH, Nowinski CJ, Alosco ML, Mez J, Tripodis Y, Huber BR, Alvarez VE, Cherry JD, McKee AC, Stein TD. Neurodegeneration in the cortical sulcus is a feature of chronic traumatic encephalopathy and associated with repetitive head impacts. Acta Neuropathol. 2024 Dec 06; 148(1):79.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39643767; PMCID: PMC11624223; DOI: 10.1007/s00401-024-02833-8;
     
  9. Abdolmohammadi B, Tuz-Zahra F, Uretsky M, Nicks R, Mosaheb S, Labonte J, Yhang E, Durape S, Martin B, Palmisano J, Nowinski C, Cherry JD, Alvarez VE, Huber BR, Dams-O'Connor K, Crary J, Dwyer B, Daneshvar DH, Goldstein LE, Au R, Katz DI, Kowall NW, Cantu RC, Stern RA, Alosco ML, Stein TD, Tripodis Y, McKee AC, Mez J. Duration of Ice Hockey Play and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Dec 02; 7(12):e2449106.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39630446; PMCID: PMC11618473; DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.49106;
     
  10. Uretsky M, Nair E, Burton R, Cronin SW, Rousseau D, Tuz-Zahra F, Durape S, Abdolmohammadi B, Baucom Z, Saltiel N, Shah A, Martin B, Palmisano J, Cherry JD, Daneshvar D, Dwyer B, Dams-O'Connor K, Crary J, Goldstein L, Huber B, Katz D, Kowall N, Cantu RC, Alvarez VE, Stern RA, Stein TD, Tripodis Y, McKee AC, Alosco ML, Mez J. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, Family History of Mental Illness, and Aggression in Brain Donors With Repetitive Head Impact Exposure. Neurology. 2024 Dec 24; 103(12):e210056.View Related Profiles. PMID: 39602665; PMCID: PMC11604107; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000210056;
     
Showing 10 of 73 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 72 publications over 20 distinct years, with a maximum of 9 publications in 2022

YearPublications
19971
19981
19992
20002
20041
20113
20122
20131
20143
20152
20161
20171
20184
20194
20207
20218
20229
20237
20246
20257


Recent (within 3 months)

New research sheds light on neurodegenerative disorder CTE

Spectrum News 10/14/2025

Many Minor Hits Can Damage an Athlete’s Brain (

New York Times 9/17/2025

Repeated head trauma causes brain changes in young athletes before CTE symptoms

STAT News 9/17/2025
Older

Are Neuroimmune Proteins the Key to Neurodegenerative Disease Diagnosis?

Biomarkers 11/23/2022

Neuroimmune proteins may serve as biomarkers for diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases

Medical Xpress 11/21/2022

Gene Variation May Explain Most Severe CTE

Futurity 11/29/2018

Researchers Identify Genes That Could Make Some People More Susceptible To CTE

Tech Times 11/5/2018

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