Title: Distinguished Chair Professor

Highest Degree: M.D., University of California at Los Angeles

E-mail: Kenneth.kaushansky@stonybrook.edu

Research and Professional Positions/Appointments: 

1979-2001: Assistant through Full Professor of Medicine, University of Washington;

2001-2010: Helen M Ranney Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles;

2010-2022: Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and Dean, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University;

2022-present: Dean and Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

Honors and Awards

1. Elected member of National Academy and medical societies:

    National Academy of Inventors (2019-)

    American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006-)

    National Academy of Medicine (2004-)

    American Society for Clinical Investigation (1993-)

    Western Society for Clinical Investigation (1994-)

    Western Association of Physicians (1995-)

    Association of American Physicians (1998-)

    Fellow American College of Physicians (2006-)

    Master American College of Physicians (2007-)

2. President, President-elect, and vice President of three major medical academic societies:

    American Society for Clinical Investigation (2001-2004)

    American Society of Hematology (2006-2008)

    Western Society for Clinical Investigation (1998-1999)

3. Major academic awards:

    Distinguished Service Award, Department of Biomedical Engineering (2021)

    NIH Physician Scientist Award (1984-1989)

    Junior Faculty Award, American Cancer Society (1989-1992)

    Dameshek Award, American Society of Hematology (1996)

    Outstand Investigator Award, American Federation Medical Research (1997)

    Ernest Beutler Award, American Society of Hematology (2013)

4. Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor of academic journals and textbook:

    Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief, Blood (1996-2002)

    Editor, The Hematologist (2003-2008)

    Associate Editor and Editor, Williams Hematology (2003- present)

Lab & Research Interest: 

Dr. Kaushansky was continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health to perform cutting edge biomedical research for over 35 years. The goal of the Kaushansky laboratory was to understand, and manipulate for therapeutic benefit, blood cell production. Towards this end, his team has cloned several of the genes important in the growth and differentiation of blood cells, including GM-CSF, IL-3 and thrombopoietin, the latter a key regulator of hematopoietic stem cell and blood platelet production. This work ultimately led to others developing four drugs currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency to treat low blood platelet counts, and has resulting in his penning well over 200 scholarly publications.

Publications (selected from 283 full length scholarly publications):

1. Kaushansky K, O'Hara PJ, et al:  Genomic cloning, characterization, and multilineage expression of human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83:3101-3105, 1986
2. Kaushansky K, Shoemaker SG, et al:  The hematopoietic activity of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor is dependent upon two distinct regions of the molecule:  A functional analysis based upon the activities of hybrid growth factors.  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86:1213-1217, 1989
3. Kaushansky K:  Control of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor production in normal endothelial cells by positive and negative elements.  J. Immunol. 143:2525-2529, 1989
4. Kaushansky K, Shoemaker SG, et al:  The structure-function relationship of interleukin-3.  An analysis based on the function of a series of interspecies chimera of gibbon and murine IL-3.  J. Clin. Invest. 90:1879-1888, 1992
5. Kaushansky K, Lok S, et al:  Promotion of megakaryocyte progenitor expansion and differentiation by the c-Mpl ligand thrombopoietin.  Nature 369:568-571, 1994
6. Lok S, Kaushansky K, et al:  Cloning and expression of murine thrombopoietin cDNA and stimulation of platelet production in vivo.  Nature 369:565-568, 1994
7. Kaushansky K:  Thrombopoietin:  The primary regulator of platelet production.  Blood, 86:419-431, 1995
8. Sitnicka E, et al: The effect of thrombopoietin on the proliferation and differentiation of murine hematopoietic stem cells.  Blood. 87:4998-5005, 1996
9. Kaushansky K: Thrombopoietin. New Engl J Med. 339:746-754, 1998
10. Kirito K, Fox NE, Kaushansky K: Thrombopoietin stimulates expression of HoxB4: An explanation for the favorable effects of TPO on hematopoietic stem cells. Blood 102:3172-3178, 2003
11. Kaushansky K. The molecular mechanisms that control thrombopoiesis. J. Clin Invest. 115:3339-3347, 2005
12. Kaushansky K. Lineage specific hematopoietic growth factors. New Engl. J Med. 354:2034-2045, 2006
13. Geddis AE, Fox NE, et al. Low ploidy endomitotic megakaryocytes exhibit cleavage furrow regression following furrow ingression. Cell Cycle 6:455-460, 2007
14. Sangkhae V, Etheridge SE, et al. The thrombopoietin receptor, c-MPL, is critical for development of JAK2V617F-positive MPNs. Blood 2014; 124: 3956-3963
15. Zhan H, Ma Y, et al. JAK2V617F-mutant megakaryocytes contribute to hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell expansion in a model of murine myeloproliferation.  Leukemia. 2016 30:2332-2341
16. Kaushansky K, Zhan H. The Regulation of Normal and Neoplastic Hematopoiesis is Dependent on Microenvironmental Cells. Adv Biol Reg. 2018; 69:11-15
17. Castiglione M, Zhang H, Kaushansky K, Zhan H. Cell competition between wild-type and JAK2V617F mutant cells in a murine model of a myeloproliferative neoplasm. Exp Hematol. 2021; 100: 52-62
18. Zhan H, Kaushansky K. Megakaryocytes as the regulator of the hematopoietic vascular niche. Front Oncol. 2022; 12:912060