Dr. Michael Kastan

Biography

Michael Barry Kastan is the William Jane Shingleton Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University, where he serves as the Executive Director of the Duke Cancer Institute. He holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Washington University School of Medicine, having completed his clinical training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. Before joining Duke in 2011, he was a Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins and served as the Chair of the Hematology-Oncology Department at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. His laboratory is renowned for its research focused on cellular responses to DNA damage, particularly involving p53 and ATM DNA damage signaling pathways. Dr. Kastan has received numerous awards, including election to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. His editorial roles include serving as Editor-in-Chief for the journal Molecular Cancer Research. He leads studies on molecular and biochemical controls of cellular stress responses, focusing on novel anti-cancer therapeutics founded from his research findings.

Research Interests