Steven Josefowicz

Steven Josefowicz is an Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine's Graduate School of Medical Sciences, affiliated with the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He holds appointments in the Immunology & Microbial Pathogenesis (IMP) Program and the Physiology, Biophysics & Systems Biology (PBSB) Program. His research integrates epigenetics and immunology to explore chromatin-mediated transcriptional regulation, particularly during rapid immune responses and disease states like cancer and inflammation.

Dr. Josefowicz obtained his BA from UC Berkeley and a PhD under Alexander Rudensky at the University of Washington and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He pursued postdoctoral training at The Rockefeller University with C. David Allis, focusing on epigenetic mechanisms in immune cells. Since joining Weill Cornell in 2017, his lab has pioneered tools for functional histone genetics in mammals.

His work investigates how chromatin signaling pathways and histone modifications enable selective gene expression in immune cells, with implications for inflammatory diseases and cancer. Key themes include epigenetic memory, immune cell differentiation, and the interplay between signaling kinases and chromatin structure in driving rapid transcriptional responses.

Recent publications highlight his focus on epigenetic reprogramming in hematopoietic stem cells, histone modifications during immune activation, and chromatin dynamics in inflammatory and viral contexts. His lab's output bridges fundamental epigenetic mechanisms with translational applications in oncology and immunology.

Dr. Josefowicz mentors a team of graduate students and postdocs, including Andrew Daman, Dughan Ahimovic, and Jin Gyu Cheong. His lab employs cutting-edge methodologies like PIE-seq for cross-study analysis and CRISPR screens to dissect gene regulatory networks.