News & Events: Johannes R. Kratz, M.D.

We are pleased to announce that Johannes Kratz, MD has been selected as UCSF's first Medical Director of Robotic Surgery. Johannes has served as co-Director of the UCSF Health Robotic Executive committee from 2018-2022 and in 2022 became sole director of the same. Under his careful stewardship, robotic surgeries have grown year over year adding additional service lines and placing UCSF at the forefront of technological innovation in the use of robotic technology in surgery. Johannes has led the development of a robotics dashboard tracking both volume and key performance indicators important [...]

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 [...]

"Looking at the genomic aspect of tumors allows us to get deeper than just looking at the microscopic appearance of the tumor and see how aggressive they are biologically," said Johannes Kratz, MD, FACS, director of minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and coauthor of the study that was published in December 2019 in JAMA Network Open. "We can make a more accurate prediction of which patients will recur and better predict survival." Dr Kratz said that incorporating molecular analyses to determine patients' prognoses helps address [...]

UCSF surgeon-scientist Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. has been awarded the Michael DeBakey Research Scholarship by the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) and AATS Foundation. This two-year research scholarship is awarded annually to a single North American surgeon committed to pursuing an academic career in cardiothoracic surgery. Dr. Kratz was given this prestigious award for the study of genetic and immunologic determinants of recurrent early-stage lung cancer. The Kratz Lab focuses on the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage, surgically resectable thoracic [...]

UCSF surgeon-scientist Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. was awarded the Inaugural Hellman Family Clinical-Translational Research Development Award from the Bakar ImmunoX initiative. This development award embeds a young investigator in an ImmunoX CoLab for two years in order to rapidly translate clinical insights into molecular-level understanding of disease. Dr. Kratz was given this prestigious award for the study of tumor immune populations in high-risk early-stage lung cancer.   The Kratz Lab focuses on the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage, surgically resectable [...]

The Thoracic Oncology Program proudly announces the launch of the Kratz Lab, which will focus on understanding the genetic and immunological mechanisms that drive early-stage, surgically resectable thoracic malignancies, most notably non-small cell lung cancer. The translationally-focused Kratz Lab will use the knowledge gained from investigating these mechanisms to identify novel therapeutic targets and treatments for this group of patients.  Johannes R. Kratz, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery and Van Auken Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology, is the [...]

Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. has been named the new Van Auken Endowed Chair in Thoracic Oncology. Kratz is an assistant professor in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery, a member of the Thoracic Oncology Program, and director of Advanced Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery.  The Van Auken Endowed Chair supports research, teaching and service in the field of thoracic oncology. Kratz has excelled in all three areas. As a research fellow at UCSF, he was instrumental in the development of a prognostic assay for early-stage lung cancer, working on a team led by David M. Jablons, [...]

Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. and Yeranuí Ledesma, M.D. are among this year's recipients of the 2017 UCSF Health Exceptional Physician Award. Dr. Kratz, now a member of the Thoracic Oncology Program and Assistant Professor in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery, and Dr. Ledesma, a Senior Resident in General Surgery, were among 8 winners out of 61 nominees, notably the only clinical fellow and resident, respectively, at UCSF to receive the award, and the only recipients not on the faculty.  The official announcement reads: We are delighted to announce the 2017 UCSF Health Exceptional [...]

The Department of Surgery welcomes Johannes R. Kratz, M.D. to the faculty as Assistant Professor in the Division of Adult Cardiothoracic Surgery and member of the Thoracic Oncology Program. Dr. Kratz was a surgical research fellow in the UCSF Thoracic Oncology Laboratory from 2008-2011 where he played a key role in the research leading to the development of a prognostic assay for early-stage lung cancer by a team led by David M. Jablons, M.D. and Michael Mann, M.D., a test now in widespread clinical use. He returned to UCSF in 2014, completing his advanced training as a clinical fellow in [...]