Research Summary

Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. is Director of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Thoracic Surgery and holds the Van Auken Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology. Kratz graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School and holds a Masters in Philosophy from Stanford.

Kratz worked as research fellow in the Thoracic Oncology Lab from 2008-2011 where he played a pivotal role in the development of a prognostic assay for early-stage lung cancer patients. The novel assay was validated in an international clinical trial led by thoracic surgeons David M. Jablons, M.D. and Michael Mann, M.D. The assay better predicted risk of death in early-stage lung cancer patients versus conventional staging guidelines and later successfully identified Stage 1A lung cancer patients who had a very high likelihood of mortality after surgery. Kratz finished his clinical training as a clinical fellow in Thoracic Surgery at UCSF from 2014 - 2017.

Kratz has published numerous papers and has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the Partners Healthcare Resident/Fellow as Teacher Award, Willard M. Daggett Award, Edward Churchill Surgical Research Fellowship, Wyeth Scholarship of the American College of Surgeons, John E. Thayer Scholarship Award, Howard Hughes Medical Fellows Program Continued Support Award, Hellman Family Clinical-Translational Research Development Award, Howard Hughes Medical Student Research Fellowship, Michael DeBakey Research Scholarship, and designation as a Soma Weiss Scholar.

Research Funding

  • July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2022 - Immune Phenotypes of High-Risk Early Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: American Association of Thoracic Surgery, Sponsor Award ID:
  • August 1, 2019 - July 31, 2021 - CoProject Pilot in Early-Stage Lung Cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Bakar ImmunoX Foundation, Sponsor Award ID:
  • June 3, 2020 - June 2, 2021 - COVID-19 Related Rapid Research Pilot Initiative , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: University of California, San Francisco, Sponsor Award ID:
  • October 19, 2019 - September 30, 2020 - Lung Cancer Tumor Immune Microenvironments , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sponsor Award ID:

Education

Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, B.A. (with Distinction), 06/1999, Philosophy
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, B.S. (with Honors with Distinction), 06/1999, Biological Sciences
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, M.A., 06/2000, Philosophy
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, M.D. (Magna cum laude), 06/2006
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, Residency, 06/2014, General Surgery
University of California, San Francisco, CA, Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, 06/2011, Thoracic Oncology
University of California, San Francisco, CA, Fellowship, 06/2017, Cardiothoracic Surgery

Honors & Awards

  • 2005
    Soma Weiss Scholar Award, Harvard Medical School
  • 2006
    John E. Thayer Scholarship Award, Harvard Medical School
  • 2010
    Willard M. Daggett Award, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • 2011
    President's Conference Selection, World Conference on Lung Cancer, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
  • 2012
    First Place, Oral Presentation, Harvard Medical School Surgery Research Conference, Harvard Medical School
  • 2012
    Partners HealthCare Resident/Fellow as Teacher Award (awarded to one resident among all specialties across all eleven Partners HealthCare hospitals), Partners HealthCare
  • 2017
    UCSF Health Exceptional Physician Award (awarded for Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Diversity and Excellence), UCSF
  • 2018
    Van Auken Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology, University of California, San Francisco
  • 2019
    Hellman Family Clinical-Translational Research Development Award, Bakar ImmunoX Initiative
  • 2019
    Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Teaching Award (awarded for Medical Student education), UCSF
  • 2019
    Michael DeBakey Research Scholarship (awarded to a single North American surgeon committed to pursuing an academic career in cardiothoracic surgery)

Selected Publications

  1. Hysenaj L, Little S, Kulhanek K, Magnen M, Bahl K, Gbenedio OM, Prinz M, Rodriguez L, Andersen C, Rao AA, Shen A, Lone JC, Lupin-Jimenez LC, Bonser LR, Serwas NK, Mick E, Khalid MM, Taha TY, Kumar R, Li JZ, Ding VW, Matsumoto S, Maishan M, Sreekumar B, Simoneau C, Nazarenko I, Tomlinson MG, Khan K, von Gottberg A, Sigal A, Looney MR, Fragiadakis GK, Jablons DM, Langelier CR, Matthay M, Krummel M, Erle DJ, Combes AJ, Sil A, Ott M, Kratz JR, Roose JP. SARS-CoV-2 infection of airway organoids reveals conserved use of Tetraspanin-8 by Ancestral, Delta, and Omicron variants. Stem Cell Reports. 2023 Feb 08.  View on PubMed
  2. Combes AJ, Samad B, Tsui J, Chew NW, Yan P, Reeder GC, Kushnoor D, Shen A, Davidson B, Barczak AJ, Adkisson M, Edwards A, Naser M, Barry KC, Courau T, Hammoudi T, Argüello RJ, Rao AA, Olshen AB, Immunoprofiler Consortium, Cai C, Zhan J, Davis KC, Kelley RK, Chapman JS, Atreya CE, Patel A, Daud AI, Ha P, Diaz AA, Kratz JR, Collisson EA, Fragiadakis GK, Erle DJ, Boissonnas A, Asthana S, Chan V, Krummel MF. Discovering dominant tumor immune archetypes in a pan-cancer census. Cell. 2022 01 06; 185(1):184-203.e19.  View on PubMed
  3. Kratz JR, Li JZ, Tsui J, Lee JC, Ding VW, Rao AA, Mann MJ, Chan V, Combes AJ, Krummel MF, Jablons DM. Genetic and immunologic features of recurrent stage I lung adenocarcinoma. Sci Rep. 2021 12 08; 11(1):23690.  View on PubMed
  4. Haro GJ, Sheu B, Marcus SG, Sarin A, Campbell L, Jablons DM, Kratz JR. Perioperative Lung Resection Outcomes After Implementation of a Multidisciplinary, Evidence-based Thoracic ERAS Program. Ann Surg. 2021 12 01; 274(6):e1008-e1013.  View on PubMed
  5. Jack Z. Li, Vivianne W. Ding, David M. Jablons, Johannes R. Kratz. Multiomic Characterization of Stage I Lung Adenocarcinoma Reveals Distinct Genetic and Immunologic Features of Recurrent Disease. Journal of the American College of Surgeons. 2021 Nov 1; 233(5):e190-e191.  View on PubMed
  6. COVIDSurg Collaborative. Effect of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns on planned cancer surgery for 15 tumour types in 61 countries: an international, prospective, cohort study. Lancet Oncol. 2021 Nov; 22(11):1507-1517.  View on PubMed
  7. C. Blakely, A. Urisman, D. Kerr, W. Wu, B. Bacaltos, J. Rotow, M. Gubens, K. Jones, T. Bivona, S. Joo, J. Riess, D. Aisner, R. Doebele, T. Patil, E. Schenk, J. Kratz, D. Jablons. P26.02 A Phase II Trial of Neoadjuvant Osimertinib for Surgically Resectable EGFR-Mutant Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Updated Results. Journal of Thoracic Oncology. 2021 Oct 1; 16(10):s1039-s1040.  View on PubMed
  8. COVIDSurg Collaborative, GlobalSurg Collaborative . SARS-CoV-2 vaccination modelling for safe surgery to save lives: data from an international prospective cohort study. Br J Surg. 2021 Sep 27; 108(9):1056-1063.  View on PubMed
  9. Gupta AR, Woodard GA, Jablons DM, Mann MJ, Kratz JR. Improved outcomes and staging in non-small-cell lung cancer guided by a molecular assay. Future Oncol. 2021 Dec; 17(34):4785-4795.  View on PubMed
  10. COVIDSurg Collaborative, GlobalSurg Collaborative. SARS-CoV-2 infection and venous thromboembolism after surgery: an international prospective cohort study. Anaesthesia. 2022 Jan; 77(1):28-39.  View on PubMed
  11. Woodard GA, Kratz JR, Haro G, Gubens MA, Blakely CM, Jones KD, Mann MJ, Jablons DM. Molecular Risk Stratification is Independent of EGFR Mutation Status in Identifying Early-Stage Non-Squamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients at Risk for Recurrence and Likely to Benefit From Adjuvant Chemotherapy. Clin Lung Cancer. 2021 11; 22(6):587-595.  View on PubMed
  12. Hysenaj L, Little S, Kulhanek K, Gbenedio OM, Rodriguez L, Shen A, Lone JC, Lupin-Jimenez LC, Bonser LR, Serwas NK, Bahl K, Mick E, Li JZ, Ding VW, Matsumoto S, Maishan M, Simoneau C, Fragiadakis G, Jablons DM, Langelier CR, Matthay M, Ott M, Krummel M, Combes AJ, Sil A, Erle DJ, Kratz JR, Roose JP. SARS-CoV-2 infection studies in lung organoids identify TSPAN8 as novel mediator. bioRxiv. 2021 Jun 02.  View on PubMed
  13. Woodard GA, Fels Elliott DR, Yap A, Haro GJ, Kratz JR, Mann MJ, Jones KD, Jablons DM. Resectability, Recurrence, and Risk Stratification of Giant Solitary Fibrous Tumors in the Thoracic Cavity. Ann Surg Oncol. 2021 Sep; 28(9):4953-4959.  View on PubMed
  14. COVIDSurg Collaborative, GlobalSurg Collaborative. Timing of surgery following SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international prospective cohort study. Anaesthesia. 2021 06; 76(6):748-758.  View on PubMed
  15. Li PJ, Roose JP, Jablons DM, Kratz JR. Bioinformatic Approaches to Validation and Functional Analysis of 3D Lung Cancer Models. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Feb 09; 13(4).  View on PubMed
  16. Kratz JR, Nguyen TC. Commentary: Cardiothoracic surgery training: Global challenges without universal solutions. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2022 01; 163(1):177-178.  View on PubMed
  17. G. Woodard, J. Kratz, G. Haro, M. Gubens, C. Blakely, K. Jones, M. Mann, D. Jablons. MO01.13 Molecular Risk Stratification is Independent of EGFR Mutation Status in Identifying Early Stage Non-Squamous Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients at Risk for Recurrence and Likely to Benefit from Adjuvant Chemotherapy. Journal of Thoracic Oncology. 2021 Jan 1; 16(1):s21.  View on PubMed
  18. Glasbey JC, Nepogodiev D, Simoes JFF, Omar O, Li E, Venn ML, Abou Chaar MK, Capizzi V, Chaudhry D, Desai A, Edwards JG, Evans JP, Fiore M, Videria JF, Ford SJ, Ganly I, Griffiths EA, Gujjuri RR, Kolias AG, Kaafarani HMA, Minaya-Bravo A, McKay SC, Mohan HM, Roberts KJ, San Miguel-M?ndez C, Pockney P, Shaw R, Smart NJ, Stewart GD, Sundar Mrcog S, Vidya R, Bhangu AA, COVIDSurg Collaborative. Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study. J Clin Oncol. 2021 01 01; 39(1):66-78.  View on PubMed
  19. COVIDSurg Collaborative. Delaying surgery for patients with a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. Br J Surg. 2020 Nov; 107(12):e601-e602.  View on PubMed
  20. Maynard A, McCoach CE, Rotow JK, Harris L, Haderk F, Kerr DL, Yu EA, Schenk EL, Tan W, Zee A, Tan M, Gui P, Lea T, Wu W, Urisman A, Jones K, Sit R, Kolli PK, Seeley E, Gesthalter Y, Le DD, Yamauchi KA, Naeger DM, Bandyopadhyay S, Shah K, Cech L, Thomas NJ, Gupta A, Gonzalez M, Do H, Tan L, Bacaltos B, Gomez-Sjoberg R, Gubens M, Jahan T, Kratz JR, Jablons D, Neff N, Doebele RC, Weissman J, Blakely CM, Darmanis S, Bivona TG. Therapy-Induced Evolution of Human Lung Cancer Revealed by Single-Cell RNA Sequencing. Cell. 2020 09 03; 182(5):1232-1251.e22.  View on PubMed

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