Transcriptional Control of CD8 T Cell Exhaustion in Cancer with Patrick G. Hogan, PhD

Dr. Hogan completed his PhD in neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and remained at Harvard Medical School and the Immune Disease Institute as a faculty member until 2010, when he relocated to the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. For many years, his research focused on the mechanisms of cellular calcium signaling in T cells. His laboratory cloned and characterized the calcium/calcineurin-regulated transcription factor NFAT; investigated the control of calcineurin-NFAT signaling by protein-protein interactions; and identified the pore subunit of the store-operated calcium channel ORAI1, which initiates NFAT activation in T cells. He is currently dissecting the nuanced transcriptional roles of NFAT in T cells, where NFAT serves as a pivotal trigger for gene expression of the effector program, but paradoxically also drives the onset of a hyporesponsive state in tumor-infiltrating T cells.