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Welcome to the Katona Lab
Our lab and research program is an exciting, highly collaborative, and interdisciplinary program focused on gastrointestinal cancer and hereditary gastrointestinal cancer predisposition syndromes. Ongoing research activities in this area span the spectrum of basic science, translation studies, and clinical studies, and involve active collaborations across the Perelman School of Medicine, Abramson Cancer Center, and the University of Pennsylvania. Active research projects in our group, as detailed on the Research page, include understanding the biology of colorectal tumorigenesis through the use of mouse models and human-derived organoids, studying the role of the immune system in Lynch syndrome pathogenesis, implementation of early detection of pancreatic cancer in individuals at high-risk, investigating the role of the microbiome in colonic polyposis, and characterizing genetic susceptibility for gastric cancer.
The Katona Lab is looking for motivated graduate students and post-docs. See the Positions page for more details.
Recent News
August 2026
Welcome to our new clinical coordinators Sofia Solon, Sophie Borrelli, and Katie McDaniel!
July 2026
An image from a study spearheaded by Kole Buckley, among many others, was featured on the cover art of the July issue of Molecular Cancer Research. The study looked at the differences in gastric epithelium of BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers compared to non-carriers. Molecular Cancer Research Article
May 2026
In an effort led by Hairu Yang and collaboration with Ken Cadwell's lab along with many others, "MAIT cell enrichment in Lynch syndrome is associated with immune surveillance and colorectal cancer risk" was published in Gut. Findings from this work define key features of the Lynch Syndrome colonic microenvironment and suggest that MAIT cell enrichment contributes to immune surveillance against colorectal cancer, offering new insights into disease penetrance, risk stratification and prevention. Gut Article
Congrats to Theresa on passing her prelims!
The Katona lab had a strong showing at the DDW conference held in Chicago. Bhoomi, Kole, Ariana, Sammy and Bryson all gave presentations consisting of 3 posters and 3 talks.
April 2026
Bryson was an awarded the 2026 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. Congrats Bryson, well deserved!
March 2026
March 10th marked the 5th annual Lynch Syndrome Symposium hosted at Penn with keynote speaker Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD. The event was well attended with Jessica Long, Yasmin Kamal, Lauren Cuff, and Sophie Borrelli of the Katona lab all giving presentations along with alumni Jordan Heiman.
