Andrew S. Kraft, MD

Therapeutic Development Program, Research Member

Biography

I completed my medical and research training at the University of Pennsylvania and the National Cancer Institute. After directing a Medical Oncology Division and an NCI-designated Cancer Center, I was recruited as Director of the UA Cancer Center (UACC). I oversee all major scientific, clinical, and administrative matters as they relate to cancer. My priority is to ensure that the UACC directly serves the state of Arizona in its efforts to reduce the cancer burden for all its residents. I am working to strengthen collaborative team-oriented science, reach out to the diverse communities within the State, translate bench science to the clinic and grow the potential for personalized medicine.

Cancer Focus

My laboratory has focused on understanding the role of multiple protein kinases and their signal transduction pathways in regulating tumor growth. This focus led to the evaluation of drugs that regulate these kinases and an examination of how these laboratory findings might be translated into the clinic. Early discoveries identified a unique mechanism by which a lipid kinase, PKC, translocates to the plasma membrane, and how a novel c-Jun protein kinase that induced cancer cell differentiation. Current experiments on the Pim kinase are being conducted using organoids, and transgenic mice focusing on regulation of long non-coding RNAs and P bodies, controllers of mRNA half-life, to regulate cancer growth.