Jonathan Brestoff Parker
Skidmore College
University College Cork (UCC)
Medicine/Healthcare
Jon Brestoff is now Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His research lab focuses on understanding how the immune system and metabolic organs interact to maintain health and contribute to the development of metabolic diseases. Jon completed his Ph.D. in Cell & Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine.
He is the co-founder, president and CEO of Symmetry Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech company focused on developing new therapeutics to treat obesity and associated diseases. He and has three patents as well as first-author publications in top journals including Nature, Cell and Nature Immunology. His work identified a previously unknown role for the immune system in regulating weight gain and the development of obesity, a topic that is of critical importance as countries around the world recognize the far-reaching health and economic implications of obesity. As a 2010 Mitchell Scholar, Jon studied Epidemiology and Biostatistics at University College Cork, Ireland and co-authored a major textbook about clinical trial design, implementation and analysis (Epidemiology Principles and Practical Guidelines, Springer Science+Business Media, 2013). Jon obtained his undergraduate degree from Skidmore College.