Johannes Kratz, MD Recipient of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Care Center Junior Clinical Investigator Award

UCSF surgeon-scientist Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. was awarded a Junior Clinical Investigator Award from the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Care Center. This mentored award is given to a junior clinical investigator to support their research efforts in the early stages of their career. Dr. Kratz was given this prestigious award to pursue the study of the tumor immune microenvironment in high-risk early-stage lung cancer.  

The Kratz lab focuses on the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage, surgically resectable thoracic malignancies. These malignancies include lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and thymic cancer. The lab uses novel high-dimensional techniques such as genomic DNA and RNA sequencing, single-cell RNAseq, CyTOF, and patient-derived organoids to unravel the complex genetic nature of early-stage thoracic malignancies and nuanced immunological landscapes that nurture the growth of these malignancies. The knowledge gained from these investigations is being used to identify novel therapeutic targets and therapies for patients with recurrent early-stage cancer. 

Dr. Kratz’s mentor for this award is a world-renowned leader in thoracic oncology, Dr. David Jablons, MD. Dr. Jablons is the Nan T. McEvoy Distinguished Professor of Thoracic Surgical Oncology, Ada Distinguished Professor of Thoracic Oncology, Program Leader in Thoracic Oncology, Director of the Thoracic Oncology Laboratory, and Chief of General Thoracic Surgery at UCSF. He is also the former chair of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer.