Andrew S. Kraft, MD

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.