John Pfeifer

Dr. Pfeifer is a Professor of Pathology, and of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at Washington University School of Medicine. He is board certified in Anatomic Pathology, and also in Molecular Genetic Pathology. He has been a practicing surgical pathologist for over 2 years. Over the last ten years, Dr. Pfeifer has helped lead the development of the Washington University Genetics and Pathology Services (WU-GPS) laboratory. WU-GPS is a CAP/CLIA certified environment designed around genome wide analysis to support patient care, clinical trials, and translational research studies. One of the technologies central to WU-GPS is next generation sequencing (NGS), and Dr. Pfeifer has helped manage the development of faculty staffing models and ancillary processes required to support NGS for clinical applications. He is also involved in NGS clinical test design (including gene panel, exome, and whole genome-based sequencing), and in the evaluation of different platforms for clinically oriented NGS. 

Dr. Pfeifer’s academic interests are primarily focused on investigation of the role of molecular genetic testing in the analysis of tissue specimens, specifically on the methods and clinical settings in which molecular testing provides independent information that increases diagnostic accuracy, provides more accurate prognostic estimates, or can be used to guide therapy. Dr. Pfeifer also has a research interest in approaches that can be used for external quality assessment of laboratories performing molecular genetic testing.