The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center has announced that Krystle Kuhs, Ph.D., M.P.H., will serve as co-leader of its Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program. Kuhs will co-lead the program with University of Kentucky College of Public Health Associate Professor Jerod Stapleton, Ph.D., who joined the university in November 2019. In addition to her role at Markey, Kuhs will serve in the UK College of Public Health as an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology.  

The Markey Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program examines and addresses factors associated with Kentucky’s excessively high cancer incidence and mortality rates, with a focus on the state’s rural and Appalachian populations. As a cancer prevention researcher trained in both basic laboratory science and epidemiology, Kuhs’ experience allows her to apply basic science findings to population-based studies, which will be essential to lowering cancer rates in the hardest-hit areas of the state.

“I am very excited to be joining the Markey Cancer Center, an institution with an incredibly strong commitment to cancer prevention,” Kuhs said. “I look forward to working with Dr. Stapleton and program members to further grow this important area of research.” 

Prior to coming to UK, Kuhs served as an assistant professor in Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Medicine. She earned her doctorate degree in biomedical sciences/pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011 and completed a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2012. In 2016, she completed a Cancer Prevention Postdoctoral Fellowship with the National Cancer Institute.

Her research focuses on developing novel molecular predictors of head and neck cancer risk, response to treatment and risk of recurrence, with a particular focus on head and neck cancers caused by HPV.