Nick Borcherding

Nick Borcherding is a physician–scientist whose work bridges computational immunology, clinical pathology, and transplant immunogenetics. He serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, where his clinical practice focuses on human leukocyte antigen testing for transplantation, autoimmunity, and cancer immunotherapy.

Nick’s research explores how the adaptive immune system encodes and recalls disease experiences. His lab integrates single-cell sequencing, systems immunology, and machine learning to map immune diversity and predict clinical outcomes. A particular focus is on the use of innate and adaptive cellular barcodes, including mitochondrial genomes and immune receptor repertoires, to trace clonal relationships across tissues and disease states.

Beyond his laboratory and clinical roles, Nick is deeply invested in open data science. He develops widely used open-source software for immune repertoire and single-cell analysis, including

• scRepertoire
• escape
• Trex
• Ibex
• immReferent