Organizers
Bryson Katona, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Bryson Katona is the Director of the Lynch Syndrome Program at Penn.
Dr. Bryson Katona is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where he serves as the Director of Penn's Lynch Syndrome Program where he oversees clinical and research efforts focused on Lynch syndrome. Dr. Katona also serves as the Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Genetics Program (hyperlink to https://www.pennmedicine.org/cancer/navigating-cancer-care/programs-and-centers/gastrointestinal-cancer-genetics-and-risk-evaluation-program) and Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Risk Evaluation Program (hyperlink to https://www.pennmedicine.org/cancer/navigating-cancer-care/programs-and-centers/gastrointestinal-cancer-genetics-and-risk-evaluation-program/gi-cancer-risk-evaluation) at Penn, and he also is a member of the Cancer Control Program of the Abramson Cancer Center. Dr. Katona is a physician-scientist who is an expert in gastrointestinal cancer genetics, and his research program focuses on the diagnosis, risk assessment, management, and biology of hereditary gastrointestinal cancer predisposition syndromes. Dr. Katona serves on the Executive Council for the Collaborative Group of the Americans on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancers, and he also serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's committee on hereditary colorectal cancer syndromes. Dr. Katona received his BA/MS at the University of Pennsylvania, followed by his MD/PhD at Washington University in St. Louis.
E. John Wherry, PhD
Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President's Distinguished Professor
Dr. E. John Wherry the Barbara and Richard Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor, Chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics in the Perelman School of Medicine and Director of the UPenn Institute for Immunology. Dr. Wherry received his Ph.D. at Thomas Jefferson University in 2000 then did postdoctoral research at Emory University with Dr. Rafi Ahmed from 2000-2004.Dr. Wherry has received numerous distinctions and honors including the Distinguished Alumni award from the Thomas Jefferson University, the Cancer Research Institute’s Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology and the Stand Up To Cancer Phillip A. Sharp Award. Dr. Wherry has over 225publications. He has an H-Index of 101and his publications have been cited over 55,000 times.
Dr. Wherry’s research has pioneered the field of T cell exhaustion –the fundamental mechanisms by which T cell responses are attenuated during chronic infections and cancer. His discoveries helped identify the role of PD-1and the ability to block this pathway to reinvigorate exhausted T cells.His group also first demonstrated that targeting multiple co-inhibitory receptors simultaneously could synergistically improve therapeutic efficacy, a foundation for current combination immunotherapy efforts in humans. Dr. Wherry’s work has defined the transcriptional and epigenetic atlas of exhausted T cells defining exhausted T cells as a distinct immune lineage. Finally, his laboratory has been a pioneer in defining the concept of Immune Health using systems immunology approaches, most recently applying this concept to COVID-19.