Monica Kraft to lead All of Us Research Program

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Monica Kraft, an internationally recognized physician-scientist and longtime chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, has been named contact principal investigator for the University of Arizona – Banner Health All of Us Research Program.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the All of Us Research Program is a historic effort to collect and study data from at least 1 million people in the United States. By building one of the world's largest and most diverse databases for biomedical research, scientists will be better able to make significant strides toward fulfilling the promise of precision treatments for individual patients and diverse populations.

Since 2017, the University and Banner have partnered in this landmark national research effort that seeks to inform thousands of research studies, covering a wide variety of health conditions.

As contact PI, Kraft is the communication lead and the responsible person for the project. In this role, she will lead the program's efforts to ensure diverse populations are well represented in the national All of Us database, said Michael D. Dake, senior vice president of University of Arizona Health Sciences.

"To date, the program has enrolled nearly 40,000 core participants throughout Arizona and Colorado, with more than 82% from communities historically underrepresented in biomedical research," he said.

Kraft, who joined the College of Medicine – Tucson in 2014, holds the Robert and Irene Flinn Endowed Chair of Medicine and is deputy director of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center.

Kraft is an international expert in pulmonary medicine who specializes in translational asthma research, with a focus on precision medicine therapies to treat severe asthma. Her research has been funded by the NIH and the American Lung Association for 25 consecutive years.

In 2019, Kraft was named the Arizona Bioscience Researcher of the Year for her commitment to pushing the frontiers of science for the betterment of people in Arizona and throughout the world. She also serves on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Advisory Council.

In another leadership change, Michael M.I. Abecassis, dean of the College of Medicine – Tucson and professor in the Department of Surgery and the Department of Immunobiology, been named a co-investigator for the All of Us Research Program.

Abecassis is a nationally recognized leader in medicine who has been guiding the College of Medicine – Tucson into a new era of medical training, scientific discovery and patient care delivery. He has received continuous funding from the NIH for the past 24 years, serving as principal investigator for several major research grants, including translational and clinical studies investigations regarding biomarkers for both kidney and liver transplant recipients.

A version of this story originally appeared on the Department of Medicine website.