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Thoracic Oncology Lab »  People »  Principal Investigators »  Johannes R. Kratz, M.D.
Johannes R. Kratz, M.D., FACS

Johannes R. Kratz, M.D., FACS

  • Associate Professor of Surgery
  • Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery
  • Van Auken Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology
  • Director, Minimally Invasive and Robotic Thoracic Surgery
  • Medical Director of Robotic Surgery, UCSF Health
  • Director, Thoracic Surgery Residency Program

Contact Information

Academic Office
500 Parnassus Ave., MUW 405, Box 0118
San Francisco, CA 94143
Tel: 415-353-7502
Email: [email protected]
Assistant: [email protected]
Thoracic Surgery and Oncology Clinic:
1600 Divisadero St., 4th Floor, Box 1674
San Francisco, CA 94115
Clinic:415-885-3882
Fax: 415-353-7151

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M.D. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA., Magna cum laude, 2006

M.A. Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA., Philosophy, 2000

B.S. Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA., Biological Sciences (with Honors with Distinction), 1999

B.A. Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.,Philosophy (with Distinction), 1999

  • 6/06-6/14 Resident, Department of General Surgery. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA.
  • ACGME Fellowship in Thoracic Surgery, UCSF, 2014-2017
  • Surgical Robotics Fellowship, American Association of Thoracic Surgery Graham Foundation, Beverly, MA 2015 - 2016
  • Advanced Surgical Robotics Fellowship, University of Alabama, Birmingham (Dr. Cerfolio), 2016
  • Research Fellow, Thoracic Oncology Laboratory, University of California, San Francisco, 2008-2011
  • Research in Vascular Biology, Dr. Guillermo Garcia-Cardena, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
  • American Board of Surgery
  • American Board of Thoracic Surgery
  • Carcinoid Tumors
  • Chest Wall Tumors
  • Lung Transplantation
  • Malignant Mesothelioma
  • Mediastinal Masses
  • Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery
  • Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
  • Robotic Thoracic Surgery
  • Small Cell Lung Cancer
  • Thymoma & Thymic Carcinoma
  • Tracheal Tumors
  • Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery (VATS)
  • Inflammation in lung tumorigenesis
  • Molecularly-targeted cancer therapies
  • Prognostic assays for early stage lung cancer

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, Howard Hughes Medical Student Research Fellowship, and designation as a Soma Weiss Scholar.

Kratz was recently honored with the 2017 UCSF Health Exceptional Physician Award for service during the last year of his clinical fellowship, among 8 winners out of 61 nominees, notably the only clinical fellow at UCSF to receive the award in 2017, and one of only two winners not on the faculty.

  Award  
  Confired By    
  Date    
  • Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Teaching Award
  • University of California, San Francisco
  • 2023
  • Cardiothoracic Surgery Faculty Teaching Award
  • University of California, San Francisco
  • 2021
  • Michael DeBakey Research Scholarship
  • American Association for Thoracic Surgery
  • 2019
  • Hellman Family Clinical-Translational Research Development Award
  • Bakar ImmunoX Initiative
  • 2019
  • Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Teaching Award
  • University of California, San Francisco
  • 2019
  • Van Auken Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology
  • University of California, San Francisco
  • 2018
  • UCSF Health Exceptional Physician Award
  • University of California, San Francisco
  • 2017
  • First Place, Oral Presentation, Harvard Medical School Surgery Research Conference
  • Harvard Medical School
  • 2012
  • Partners HealthCare Resident/Fellow as Teacher Award
  • Partners HealthCare
  • 2012
  • President's Conference Selection, World Conference on Lung Cancer
  • International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
  • 2011
  • Willard M. Daggett Award
  • Massachusetts General Hospital
  • 2010
  • Wyeth Scholarship of the American College of Surgeons for the Study of Inflammation
  • Massachusetts General Hospital
  • 2008
  • Aesculapian Club
  • Harvard Medical School
  • 2006
  • John E. Thayer Scholarship Award
  • Harvard Medical School
  • 2006
  • Soma Weiss Scholar Award
  • Harvard Medical School
  • 2005
  • Howard Hughes Research Training Fellowship
  • Harvard Medical School
  • 2004
  • 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-throughput "-omics" techniques such as genomic DNA and RNA sequencing, proteomics, and metabolomics to unravel the complex nature of early-stage thoracic malignancies. At the same time, the lab actively investigates the complex 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 early-stage, yet deadly thoracic malignancies.

    Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
    ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0696-4073 Additional info
    • Immune Phenotypes of High-Risk Early Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma
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      Jul 2020
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      Jun 2022
      Principal Investigator
    • CoProject Pilot in Early-Stage Lung Cancer
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      Aug 2019
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      Jul 2021
      Principal Investigator
    • COVID-19 Related Rapid Research Pilot Initiative
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      Jun 2020
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      Jun 2021
      Principal Investigator
    • Lung Cancer Tumor Immune Microenvironments
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      Oct 2019
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      Sep 2020
      Principal Investigator
    Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
    MOST RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM A TOTAL OF 74
    Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI
    1. Tawil ME, Chryssikos T, Sorour O, Ambati VS, Jamieson A, Theologis AA, Kratz J, Mummaneni PV. Trans-Sternal Multilevel Corpectomy for Cervicothoracic Renal Cell Metastasis: 2-Dimensional Operative Video. Oper Neurosurg (Hagerstown). 2024 Jan 15. View in PubMed
    2. Murillo AD, Kratz JR. PET Standardized Uptake Value May Influence Surgical Planning For Clinical Stage IA Non- Small Cell Lung Cancer. Ann Thorac Surg. 2023 Jun 25. View in PubMed
    3. Hu KH, Kuhn NF, Courau T, Tsui J, Samad B, Ha P, Kratz JR, Combes AJ, Krummel MF. Transcriptional space-time mapping identifies concerted immune and stromal cell patterns and gene programs in wound healing and cancer. Cell Stem Cell. 2023 06 01; 30(6):885-903.e10. View in PubMed
    4. Jacqueline V. Aredo, Anatoly Urisman, Matthew A. Gubens, Claire Mulvey, Greg M. Allen, Julia K. Rotow, Daniel Lucas Kerr, Turja Chakrabarti, Bianca Bacaltos, Megan Gee, Kirk Jones, Dara L. Aisner, Tejas Patil, Erin Lynn Schenk, Trever G. Bivona, Jonathan W. Riess, Melissa Coleman, Johannes Ruediger Kratz, David Jablons, Collin M. Blakely. Phase II trial of neoadjuvant osimertinib for surgically resectable EGFR -mutated non-small cell lung cancer. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2023 Jun 1; 41(16_suppl):8508-8508. View in PubMed
    5. P. Jonathan Li, Jessica Tsui, Vivianne W. Ding, Alexis J. Combes, Matthew F. Krummel, David M. Jablons, Johannes R. Kratz. 287 Genomic and Immunologic Characterization of Lung Adenocarcinoma in Never Smokers vs. Smokers. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. 2023 Apr 24; 7(s1):86-86. View in PubMed
    6. View All Publications
    Data provided by UCSF Profiles, powered by CTSI

       

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