Scott E. Kern, M.D.

Headshot of Scott E. Kern
  • The Everett and Marjorie Kovler Professor of Pancreas Cancer Research
  • Professor of Oncology

Expertise

Cancer Genetics, Gastrointestinal Pathology

Research Interests

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma; Pancreatic Cancer, Moving toward Personalized Medicine and Nonsurgical Prevention; Clinical Impact of Research, Rigorously Defined; Academic Research Efficiency; Procuring Essential Funding for Career Development and Anti-Cancer Investigations of our Most Promising Investigators and Their Breakthrough Ideas ...read more

Background

Dr. Kern is a professor of oncology and pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. A world-renowned pancreatic cancer and cancer genetics expert, his areas of expertise include pancreatic cancer, its fundamental genetic mutations and its precursors, the genetic development of colorectal cancer, and the rare opportunities from the drug hypersensitivities arising from the common mutations in these cancers – these provide the promise of personalized therapies that not only treat a patient as an individual requiring a personalized choice of therapy, but better outcomes as well. 

Dr. Kern is the Kovler Professor of Pancreas Cancer Research. He served for 19 years as the principal investigator of the NCI SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence) grant at the Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. 

After receiving an undergraduate and medical degree from the Inteflex Program of the University of Michigan, Dr. Kern continued his residency training in pathology at Michigan. He then completed a three-year fellowship in gastrointestinal pathology and molecular cancer biology at Johns Hopkins in 1990. He established his laboratory to study special forms of colorectal cancer and, together with close colleagues (Ralph Hruban, Bert Vogelstein, Kenneth Kinzler, and Charles Yeo) used that momentum to initiate some of the first highly focused studies of a relatively ignored subject in cancer research – pancreas cancer. Their work sparked a beehive of growth in the community of pancreas cancer research that has redefined and guided the field over the past three decades, and that helped propel Johns Hopkins to become the leading and most active center in pancreas cancer training and investigations. 

Research contributions include the definition of the mutations that serve as the foundation of most pancreas cancers and that, like a genetic ratchet, serially punctuate the formation of the early precursors that lead to this cancer. His research publications are among the most highly cited in the field, giving him an exceptional H index (a standard measure of research impact) of more than 100. Together with editorials, book chapters and editorships, his publications total more than 250. Highlights are listed below.

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Titles

  • The Everett and Marjorie Kovler Professor of Pancreas Cancer Research
  • Co-Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Program
  • Professor of Oncology
  • Professor of Pathology

Departments / Divisions

Centers & Institutes

Research & Publications

Research Summary

Dr. Kern’s research produced key advances in major categories of pancreas cancer studies – including Assessing and Managing Risk, Screening for Early Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, Classification of the Tumors and Stratification of Individual Patients, and Personalized Therapies. He has trained or mentored the early career of the next generation of cancer doctors and investigators, served as the principal investigator on more than $50 million of federal NCI-funded cancer grants, and advised and helped design NCI grants of other investigators to a similar sum of research investments. Toward these goals, he applies first-hand cancer genetics research experience, collaborations and teams of close colleagues, and knowledge of the literature to advance cutting-edge studies. The hope is to create, as his team has indeed often created, real clinical advances that change and improve the clinical management of pancreas cancer. In the most recent years, this has now included an invigorated interest in a nonsurgical means to prevent pancreas cancer.

Selected Publications

View all on PubMed

Noë M, Hong SM, Wood LD, Thompson ED, Roberts NJ, Goggins MG, Klein AP, Eshleman JR, Kern SE, Hruban RH. Pancreatic cancer pathology viewed in the light of evolution. Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2021 Sep;40(3):661-674. doi: 10.1007/s10555-020-09953-z. Epub 2021 Feb 8. PMID: 33555482; PMCID: PMC8556193.

Thompson ED, Roberts NJ, Wood LD, Eshleman JR, Goggins MG, Kern SE, Klein AP, Hruban RH. The genetics of ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas in the year 2020: dramatic progress, but far to go. Mod Pathol. 2020 Dec;33(12):2544-2563. doi: 10.1038/s41379-020-0629-6. Epub 2020 Jul 23. PMID: 32704031; PMCID: PMC8375585.

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