Dr. Cusick received a PhD in Experimental Pathology from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. He completed a basic science postdoctoral fellowship studying viral pathogenesis at the University of Utah from 2010 to 2014, and a histocompatibility fellowship at Northwestern University, Chicago, from 2014 to 2017. In 2017, he joined Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) as an assistant professor (tenure-track) and co-director of BCM Immune Evaluation Laboratory. In 2019, he joined the faculty of the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School as Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the Histocompatibility Laboratory. Dr. Cusick is board-certified by the American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ABHI) and credentialed for deceased donor solid organ transplant, living donor solid organ transplant, allogeneic cell transplantation, and histocompatibility testing for other clinical purposes. In Fall 2023 he was promoted to the rank of Clinical Associate Professor.

The HLA system has been the focal point of our research interests because it controls the human immune response, whether to transplanted tissue or viruses. Current research interests are in the area of human T-cell function and immunoregulation with emphasis on the immunobiology of viral infections in transplant recipients. Furthermore, we are interested in developing immunologic diagnostic tests to assess a patient’s immune responsiveness to an allogeneic donor in both solid organ and bone marrow transplantation.