Edward Behrens, MD

Dr. Edward Behrens received his undergraduate training at The Johns Hopkins University where he majored in biology. He attended medical school at The University of Pennsylvania where he received the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Medical Student Research Fellowship to train in the laboratory of Dr. Philip Cohen. After medical school, Ed completed a Pediatrics Residency and Pediatric Rheumatology Fellowship at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He performed two post-doctoral fellowships in the laboratories of Stefania Gallucci and Gary Koretzky, after which he joined the faculty of the Division of Rheumatology at CHOP as an Assistant Professor in 2009. He became Chief of the Division of Pediatric Rheumatology in 2014 and currently holds the Joseph Lee Hollander Chair in Pediatric Rheumatology from PSOM. Ed’s research interest is the pathogenesis and treatment of cytokine storm syndromes, including the hemophagocytic syndromes Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and Macrophage Activation Syndrome (MAS). These are uniquely pediatric immunologic conditions that result in severe systemic inflammation and death if unrecognized and untreated. Despite current therapies, mortality remains high for these conditions, hovering around 50% of patients. Ed has developed a novel murine model of MAS that has allowed the careful immunologic dissection of the mediators of disease. More recently, Ed has begun to work on the role of the non-immune cell mediators of MAS as well as other diseases. His work has been recognized with many awards from the American College of Rheumatology, the Histiocyte Society, and the Arthritis Foundation. He is the founding member of the International MAS Study Group and has given lectures internationally on MAS/HLH.