Kathryn Luker

Kathryn Luker is a Researcher in the Department of Radiology at the University of Michigan Medical School, affiliated with the Biointerfaces Institute. She specializes in molecular imaging of cell signaling in cancer, developing fluorescence and bioluminescence tools for single-cell analysis of tumor microenvironments.

• BS in Chemistry (University of Kansas, 1987)
• PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (Washington University, 1993)

Research Interests: Biochemical mechanisms of chemokine/growth factor signaling in cancer progression, autocrine/paracrine signaling, fluorescence/bioluminescence reporters, custom image analysis, and multiscale computational modeling of tumor environments.

Her recent work focuses on CXCR4 inhibition in breast cancer immunotherapy, CX43-mediated tumor-stroma interactions in bone marrow metastases, and machine learning approaches to decode cancer cell heterogeneity. She has received major grants from NIH, Army-DoD, and the W. M. Keck Foundation.

Mentoring: Committed to team-based mentorship, she has co-mentored over 70 trainees across biology, medicine, engineering, and computational disciplines.