# Scott E. Kern
**Scott E. Kern** is a professor of oncology and pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the inaugural Professor of Pancreas Cancer Research.[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875) He became co-director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.[2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/) His research established much of the molecular genetics of pancreatic cancer, including the discovery reported in *Science* in 1996 of the DPC4 (SMAD4) tumor suppressor gene and functional studies of p53 in *Science* in 1992.[3](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/medical-professionals) • [4](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.271.5247.350) • [5](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.256.5058.827)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Current role | Professor of oncology and pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875) |
| Endowed chair | Inaugural Professor of Pancreas Cancer Research (chair established 2010)[2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/) |
| Program role | Co-director, Gastrointestinal Oncology Program, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center[2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/) |
| Signature work | DPC4/SMAD4 discovery, *Science*, 19 January 1996[4](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.271.5247.350) |
| Training | Inteflex combined-degree program, University of Michigan; pathology residency; Johns Hopkins fellowship completed 1990[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875) |
| Federal funding | 19 years as principal investigator of the Johns Hopkins NCI SPORE grant[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875) |
## Education and training
According to the Everett & Marjorie Kovler Professorship in Pancreas Cancer Research page at [Johns Hopkins](https://www.edgepedia.org/johns-hopkins), Kern received his undergraduate and medical degrees through the Inteflex Program of the University of Michigan, an accelerated six-year curriculum combining the two degrees.[2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/) He continued his residency training in pathology at Michigan and became board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology.[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875) • [2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/) He then completed a three-year fellowship in gastrointestinal pathology and molecular cancer biology at Johns Hopkins in 1990, based at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875) • [2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/)
## Career at Johns Hopkins
After his fellowship, Kern established a laboratory at Johns Hopkins to study special forms of colorectal cancer, and the work soon turned to pancreas cancer, then a genetically almost unexplored disease.[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875) In 1991 a research group pairing surgery, pathology, and cancer genetics began its efforts at Johns Hopkins, and in 1993 it obtained a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant from the National Institutes of Health, a grant still held as of 2020.[6](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research) The grant, NCI P50CA062924, began on 30 September 1993, with Kern leading projects on new genetic markers for pancreatic cancer and on targets for screening in pancreatic neoplasia.[7](https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/P50-CA062924-06) Kern served for 19 years as the grant's principal investigator at the Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875) In a later continuation he led the Administration and [Communication](https://www.edgepedia.org/communication) core.[8](https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/P50-CA062924-15) He was principal investigator on more than $50 million of federally funded NCI cancer grants.[1](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875)
Kern is its inaugural holder.[2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/)
## Research contributions
**p53 function.** In a 1992 *Science* paper with Kern as first author, cotransfection experiments showed that wild-type p53 activated the expression of genes adjacent to a p53 DNA binding site, with the level of activation correlating with DNA binding in vitro. According to a 1992 Science study by Kern and colleagues, oncogenic forms of p53 lost this activity, and all mutants inhibited the activity of coexpressed wild-type p53, providing a basis for the selection of such mutants during tumorigenesis.[5](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.256.5058.827)
**The DPC4/SMAD4 discovery.** About 90 percent of human pancreatic carcinomas show allelic loss at chromosome 18q. In the 19 January 1996 *Science* study, 25 of 84 tumors had homozygous deletions at 18q21.1, a site that excludes DCC and includes DPC4, a gene similar in sequence to a *Drosophila melanogaster* gene (Mad) implicated in a TGF-β-like signaling pathway. Potentially inactivating mutations in DPC4 were identified in six of 27 pancreatic carcinomas that did not have homozygous deletions at 18q21.1, identifying DPC4 as a candidate tumor suppressor gene.[4](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.271.5247.350) The Johns Hopkins program reports that the gene, now called SMAD4, is a driver of pancreatic cancer mutated in 55 percent of pancreatic cancers.[6](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research)
**A distinct genetic landscape.** The Kern laboratory defined the frequency and positions of chromosomal deletions and discovered highly frequent mutational changes affecting the DPC4, p16, and p53 genes in pancreatic cancer.[9](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research/genetics) In the 1990s Kern demonstrated that the p16/CDKN2A gene is inactivated in pancreatic cancer, alongside his discovery of SMAD4.[3](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/medical-professionals) The laboratory's model emphasizes disruption of cell cycle controls, with ras mutations providing an inappropriate G1 growth stimulus and p16 and p53 acting at checkpoint positions.[9](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research/genetics) The work also showed pancreatic cancer is genetically distinct from colon cancer: APC gene mutations, seen in most colon neoplasms, are not found in pancreatic cancer, and the [DNA mismatch repair](https://www.edgepedia.org/dna-mismatch-repair) defect seen in 15 percent of colorectal cancer is uncommon there.[9](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research/genetics) Mutant K-ras genes were found in stool samples of patients with pancreatic cancer or its precursor lesions, and the program's discovery of a genetic change on chromosome 13q in a pancreatic cancer greatly facilitated the discovery of the breast cancer gene BRCA2, establishing a genetic link between pancreatic and familial breast cancer.[9](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research/genetics) • [6](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research) Johns Hopkins pancreatic cancer research as a whole produced the first genetic blueprint for pancreatic cancer, mapping mutations in known human cancer-linked genes that make proteins.[10](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/kimmel-cancer-center/cancers-we-treat/pancreatic-cancer/research)
## Representative work
His 1996 *Science* study "DPC4, A Candidate Tumor Suppressor Gene at Human Chromosome 18q21.1" positioned DPC4 (later SMAD4) as the pancreatic cancer tumor suppressor lost in the great majority of tumors and connected it to TGF-β signaling through its sequence similarity to the fly Mad gene ([doi:10.1126/science.271.5247.350](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.271.5247.350)).[4](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.271.5247.350)
## Laboratory focus and patents
The laboratory directed by Kern is constructing a molecular genetic foundation for understanding pancreatic cancer, aiming to design gene-based tests for early detection and to develop therapy strategies.[9](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research/genetics) Its emphasis has shifted toward drug screening systems for common adult-onset cancers based on understanding of BRCA2 and other disrupted DNA-repair features in cancer cells.[2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/) His discoveries are the basis of a number of U.S. patents and of ongoing therapeutic trials for pancreatic cancer at Johns Hopkins and other centers.[2](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/)
## References
1. [Dr. Scott E. Kern, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine faculty profile](https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/scott-e-kern/2777875)
2. [Everett & Marjorie Kovler Professorship in Pancreas Cancer Research, Johns Hopkins](https://professorships.jhu.edu/professorship/everett-marjorie-kovler-professorship-in-pancreas-cancer-research/)
3. [Education for Medical Professionals, Johns Hopkins Pancreas](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/medical-professionals)
4. [DPC4, A Candidate Tumor Suppressor Gene at Human Chromosome 18q21.1 (Science, 1996)](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.271.5247.350)
5. [Oncogenic Forms of p53 Inhibit p53-Regulated Gene Expression (Science, 1992)](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.256.5058.827)
6. [Research Advances and Discoveries, Johns Hopkins Pancreatic Cancer](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research)
7. [SPORE in Gastrointestinal Cancer (P50-CA062924-06)](https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/P50-CA062924-06)
8. [SPORE in Gastrointestinal Cancer, Scott Kern (P50-CA062924-15)](https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/P50-CA062924-15)
9. [The Genetics of Pancreatic Cancer, Johns Hopkins Pathology](https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/research/genetics)
10. [Research, Johns Hopkins Skip Viragh Center for Pancreatic Cancer](https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/kimmel-cancer-center/cancers-we-treat/pancreatic-cancer/research)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Life and health scientists › Medical and health researchers › Researchers in cancer biology and oncology research › Tumor suppressor and p53 biology*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license