Research Program: Transplant Biology & Therapy
Founding Director Emeritus, Masonic Cancer Center
Professor and Children's Cancer Research Fund Land Grant Fund Chair in Pediatric Oncology

kerse001@umn.edu
612-625-4659 — office
612-626-3069 — fax
Preferred contact method: e-mail

John Kersey, M.D., is the founding director of the Masonic Cancer Center, which became a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in 1998. He currently holds the Children's Cancer Research Fund Endowed Chair in Pediatric Oncology and is a professor in the University of Minnesota Departments of Laboratory Medicine/Pathology and Pediatrics.

Dr. Kersey attended Dartmouth College (B.A.), Dartmouth Medical School (B.M.S.) and Medical School at the University of Minnesota (M.D., 1964). His research interests began in medical school where in 1960-61 he completed early studies of the role of the thymus in immune system development under Drs. Carlos Martinez and Robert Good. He completed residencies in pathology and pediatrics at the University of Minnesota and has been a faculty member since 1973.

Prior to founding the Masonic Cancer Center, Dr. Kersey directed the University's Blood and Marrow Transplant Program from 1974-1995. The program now trains scientists from around the world and annually receives several million dollars in National Institute of Health research grants.

As Blood and Marrow Transplant Program director, Dr. Kersey led the team that completed the world's first successful bone marrow transplant for lymphoma in 1975. Dr. Kersey's research accomplishments include pioneering work in the development of some of the earliest monoclonal antibodies for leukemia study in the early 1980s, and the subsequent use of these antibodies for cleansing the bone marrow of leukemia cells prior to reinfusion of a patient's own bone marrow.

Research Interests

1. Childhood leukemia, particularly leukemia caused by a chromosomal translocation resulting in the t(4;11) MLL-AF4 fusion oncogene. His laboratory has developed a transgenic mouse model of MLL-AF4 leukemia that permits studies of pathogenesis of the leukemia. Studies are underway to evaluate novel therapeutic strategies for these high risk leukemias including inhibitors of heat shock proteins that serve as molecular chaperones.
2. Immune-based therapies

Selected Publications

Neglia JP, Linet MS, Shu, X-O, Severson RK, Potter JD, Mertens AC, Wen W, Kersey JK and LL Robison. Patterns of infection and day care utilization and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Br J Cancer 2000;82:234-240.

Trigg ME, Steinherz PG, Chappell R, Johnstone HS, Gaynon PS, Kersey JH, Cherlow JM, Grossman NJ, Sather HN and GD Hammond. Early testicular biopsy in males with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Lack of impact on subsequent event-free survival. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2000;22:27-33.

Cragg L, Blazar BR, Defor T, Kolatker N, Miller W, Kersey J, Ramsay N, McGlave P, Filipovich A and D Weisdorf. A randomized trial comparing prednisone with antithymocyte globulin/prednisone as an initial systemic therapy for moderately severe acute graft-versus-host disease. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2000;6:441-447.

Shu XO, Potter JD, Linet MS, Severson RK, Han D, Kersey JH, Neglia JP, Trigg MS, Robison LL. Diagnostic x-rays and ultrasound exposure and risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia by immunophenotype. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev.2002; 11:177-185.

Kersey JH. Historical background to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Clinical Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Transplantation. Cambridge Univ. Press. (2003)

Wagner JE, Barker JN, DeFor TE, Baker KS, Blazar BR, Goldman A, Kersey J, Krivit W, MacMillan M, Orchard P, Peters C, Weisdorf D, Ramsay NKC, Davies SM. Transplantation of unrelated donor umbilical cord blood in 102 patients with malignant and non-malignant diseases: influence of CD34 cell dose and HLA disparity on treatment-related mortality and survival. Blood 2002;100:1611-1618.

Vallera DA, Elson M, Brechbiel MW, Dusenbery KE, Burns LJ, Skubitz KM, Jaszcz WB, Ramsay NK, Panoskaltsis-Mortari A, Kuroki DW, Wagner JE, Kersey JH. Preclinical studies targeting normal and leukemic hematopoietic cells with Yttrium-90-labeled anti-CD45 antibody in vitro and in vivo in nude mice. Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2003;18:133-145.

Armstrong SA, Kung AL, Mabon ME, Silverman LB, Stam RW, Den Boer ML, Pieters R, Kersey JH, Sallan SE, Fletcher JA, Golub TR, Griffin JD, Korsmeyer SJ. Inhibition of FLT3 in MLL: Validation of a therapeutic target identified by gene expression based classification. Cancer Cell 2003;3:173-183.

Johnson JJ, Chen W, Hudson W, Yao Q, Taylor M, Rabbitts TH, Kersey JH. Prenatal and postnatal myeloid cells demonstrate stepwise progression in the pathogenesis of MLL fusion gene leukemia. Blood 2003;101:3229-3235.

Yao Q, Nishiuchi R, Li Q, Kumar A, Hudson W, Kersey JH. FLT3 expressing leukemias are selectively sensitive to inhibitors of the molecular chaperone heat shock protein 90 through destabilization of signal transduction-associated kinases. Clin Cancer Res. 2003;9:4483-4493.

Vallera DA, Elson M, Brechbiel MW, Dusenbery KE, Burns LJ, Jaszcz WB, Ramsay NK, Panoskaltsis-Mortar A, Kuroki DW, Wagner JE, Vitetta ES, Kersey JH. Radiotherapy of CD19 expressing Daudi tumors in nude mice with Yttrium-90-labeled anti-CD19 antibody. Cancer Biother Radiopharm. 2004;19:11-23.

Kumar AR, Hudson WA, Chen W, Nishiuchi R, Yao Q, Kersey JH. Hoxa9 influences the phenotype but not the incidence of Mll-AF9 fusion gene leukemia. Blood 2004; 103:1823-1828.

Muyrers-Chen I, Rozovskaia T, Lee N, Kersey J, Canaani E, Paro R. Expression of leukemic MLL fusion proteins in Drosophila affects cell cycle control and chromosome morphology. Oncogene 2004;23, 8639-8648.

Yao Q, Nishiuchi R, Kitamura T, Kersey JH. Human leukemias with mutated FLT3 kinase are synergistically sensitive to FLT3 and Hsp90 inhibitors: the key role of the STAT5 signal transduction pathway. Leukemia 2005;19:1605-1612.

Chen W., Li,Q, Hudson WA, Kumar A, Kirchhof N, Kersey JH. A murine Mll-AF4 knockin model results in lymphoid and myeloid deregulation and hematological malignancy. Blood. 2006;108:669-677.

Kersey JH. Blood and marrow transplantation: a perspective from the University of Minnesota. Immunol Res, 38:149-164, 2007

Chen, W, Kumar A, Hudson WA, Li Q, Wu, B, Staggs RA, Lund EA, Sam TN. Kersey, JH. Malignant transformation initiated by Mll-AF9: Gene dosage and critical target cells. Cancer Cell, 13: 432-440, 2008