Professor Kristina Kirschner

I am a Professor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in the Division of Hematology where I lead the Cancer and Stem Cell Aging lab. I co-direct the Aging and Cancer Program at the Mayo Clinic Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging. I am interested in age-related changes in the early stages of carcinogenesis with the aim of early detection. I obtained my Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, U.K., studying DNA damage-dependent aging models, then completed post-doctoral training at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and the University of Cambridge, U.K., pioneering single-cell RNA-seq approaches to identify JAK/STAT-driven clonality and p53 driven responses to cellular stress. For eight years, I held a position as Group Leader/Associate Professor at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute, U.K. where I became interested in clonal hematopoiesis and adverse outcomes studying human aging cohorts.