As Head of the Colorectal Cancer Interception team within Janssen Oncology, Kurt leads a team focused on intercepting the initiation and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC), in collaboration with the World Without Disease Accelerator. Kurt’s focus spans areas like genetics, inflammation and microbiome changes that are associated with the development of CRC.
Before joining Janssen Oncology, Kurt led the Computational Sciences team within Janssen Discovery Sciences, supporting data collection, integration and translation across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to that, Kurt served as Head of Translational Sciences for the Molecular Medicine Unit at GlaxoSmithKline, leading both computational and laboratory scientists with a focus on uncovering molecular mechanisms of patient response, therapeutic resistance and novel combination development. While at GSK, Kurt also served as Head of Cancer Metabolism Biology.
Prior to that, Kurt was a professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Radiation Oncology at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center. His academic work primarily focused on cancer genetics, epigenetics, therapeutic resistance, synthetic lethality and novel model systems.
Kurt received his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Medicine in 2001 from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with a focus on cancer epigenetics and completed postdoctoral training at The Sydney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center with a focus on colon cancer genetics and therapeutics.