About

Ken Cadwell, PhD, is the T. Grier Miller Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He serves as the Director of the Gnotobiotic and Naturalized Mouse Core Facility and the UPENN Digestive and Liver Center. His research investigates how the immune system adapts to microbial agents encountered in the gastrointestinal tract, focusing on host-microbe interactions, autophagy, and inflammatory disease. His laboratory employs a comparative infection biology approach to understand cellular mechanisms underlying balanced immune responses necessary for combating infections while avoiding chronic illnesses such as inflammatory bowel disease. Ongoing projects include elucidating the roles of symbiotic intestinal viruses, fungi, and parasites in disease susceptibility, defining how autophagy mediates resilience to infectious threats, and exploring how environmental microbial exposure influences immune system development. His work aims to deepen understanding of how microbial diversity shapes host physiology and to develop therapies that restore balanced host-microbe relationships.

Research topics

• Biology
• Computer Science
• Immunology
• Microbiology
• Pathology
• Computational biology
• Genetics
• Biochemistry
• Cell biology
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)¹

  Autophagy · 2021 · 2557 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Biology
  • Computational biology

  autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field.

  DOI

• Paneth Cell-Derived Lysozyme Defines the Composition of Mucolytic Microbiota and the Inflammatory Tone of the Intestine

  Immunity · 2020 · 230 citations

  • Biology
  • Microbiology
  • Immunology
  DOI

• Altered Immunity of Laboratory Mice in the Natural Environment Is Associated with Fungal Colonization

  Cell Host & Microbe · 2020 · 167 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Biology
  • Microbiology
  • Immunology
  DOI

Recent grants

• The role of autophagy gene Atg16L1 in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation - Renewal - 1

  NIH · $5.2M · 2015–2023

• Redefining the role of autophagy in bacterial disease

  NIH · $5.6M · 2016–2026

• Interactions between helminth colonization and the gut microbiota

  NIH · $3.3M · 2018–2023

• NIH Grant R01DK103788

  NIH · $1.3M · 2019

• Characterization of a commensal enteric virus

  NIH · $6.7M · 2011–2030

Frequent coauthors

• P’ng Loke

  National Institutes of Health

  85 shared

• Victor J. Torres

  New York University

  51 shared

• Ying-Han Chen

  New York University

  43 shared

• Jordan E. Axelrad

  40 shared

• Joseph C. Devlin

  New York University

  39 shared

• Frank Lafont

  37 shared

• Andrea L. Graham

  Princeton University

  34 shared

• Kyung Ku Jang

  New York University

  34 shared

Labs

• Cadwell LabPI

Education

• PhD, Molecular and Cell Biology

  University of California Berkeley

  2006

• BA, Biological Science

  Northwestern University

  2002

Awards & honors

• T. Grier Miller Professor of Medicine
• Director, Gnotobiotic and Naturalized Mouse Core Facility, U…
• Director, UPENN Digestive and Liver Center, University of Pe…

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