Gary A. Koretzky

Gary Koretzky, MD, PhD is the Vice Provost for Academic Integration at Cornell University and a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Koretzky’s research aims to better understand the signal transduction events that occur following engagement of the T cell antigen receptor. He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since establishing his independent research group, as the laboratory has expanded its interests to study more globally the molecular events important for immune cell development, differentiation and function. Koretzky’s initial studies focused on the CD45 tyrosine phosphatase as a positive regulator of immunoreceptor signaling. This work led naturally to an examination of the key biochemical events that occur following receptor engagement. The Koretzky lab approach was to identify novel regulators of signal transduction following T cell receptor ligation with studies leading to the isolation, characterization, and molecular cloning of several adapter molecules, which are critical for integration of signaling pathways.  The laboratory has identified 3 such molecules including SH2 domain-containing leukocyte protein of 76 kDa (SLP-76), adhesion and degranulation-promoting adapter protein (ADAP) and promyelocytic leukemia RARa-regulated adapter molecule-1 (PRAM-1).  The Korezky lab’s ongoing projects study the role of each of these molecules not only in T cells but also in other hematopoietic cells.  In addition to studies of these positive regulators of immune signaling, the Koretzky laboratory has also had a long-standing interest in signals that interfere with activation events in T cells.  Koretzky has published more than 200 research articles in journals including Nature, Science, and Nature Immunology, and his career has been honored with extensive awards for research, teaching, and mentoring. He is a past President of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (2000) and Councilor of the Association of American Physicians (2008-2012), is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2004), a member of the National Academy of Medicine (2008), and served as the Editor-in-Chief of Immunological Reviews (2002-2014).  Koretzky is on the Council of the American Association of Immunologists and is a member of the Council of Councils of the National Institutes of Health.