18 Mar ITHS KL2 Profile: Kristopher A. Kerns, PhD
This interview is part of a series of profiles of participants in the ITHS KL2 program, an NIH-funded program which provides the time, funding, mentorship, and training necessary to foster the early career development of clinical and translational researchers. Read our previous entries in the series here.
Kristopher A. Kerns, PhD, MPH, is an acting assistant professor in the Department of Periodontics in the University of Washington School of Dentistry. He is also the associate director of the Clinical Oral Microbiome Research Center. We spoke to him in February 2025 as he was in his last weeks of the KL2 program, about how he went from selling fruit in a grocery store to becoming a scientist doing NIH- and industry-sponsored research, and the critical support he received from ITHS programs and faculty along the way.
Thank you for talking to us! Can you tell us about your journey to becoming a research scientist?
I graduated high school in 2003 and found college wasn’t for me, so I was a fruit peddler for a long time in a grocery store. Then during the 2008 economic downturn, I just wanted something that was better. I was always interested in science and dentistry sounded fun. I got back into education then and I wanted to teach, that was another big thing. I didn’t know I would stay in school for 12 years but I just loved it so much I couldn’t leave!
Dr. Kerns at the 2022 ITHS Expo.
I did my undergrad in Tacoma, WA at a small liberal arts college and that’s where I really fell in love with microbiology and dentistry. I did a Master’s in public health though A.T. Still University, where I became interested in policy and advocacy in oral health. I learned how to really look at epidemiology of dental health diseases and policies that shape surveillance and infrastructure and intervention.
I was actually applying for DDS/PhD programs, to be a clinician and a researcher, and this was 4 or 5 years after the economic crash and the economy wasn’t much better, so most people stayed in school and it was really competitive to get into dental programs. After a number of years of trying I was fortunate enough to get offered the PhD program here at UW, and I just decided I was going to teach and do research.
Can you tell us about your research focus?
I’m an oral microbiologist, so the focus of my research has really been trying to understand different microbial communities associated with health and disease, specifically, host/microbe interactions within the mouth. You know, these bacteria have co-evolved with us for a long, long time. How does our body recognize who’s good and who’s bad? And what is that tipping point where we have to mount an inflammatory, immune response. That’s really what the center of what our work is trying to do.
Well, my next question was going to be can you talk about your KL2, which is called “Classifying Human Inflammatory Responder Types (IRTs) in CAP and OTSCC” so please go on!
I was part of a research group during my pre-doctoral work that discovered this novel phenotype of inflammatory response types, IRTs. So that’s where, if you don’t brush your teeth, bacteria grows. It doesn’t grow the same in everybody. Certain people get lots of plaque really quick and some don’t grow plaque at all. Some people grow plaque quickly but it has a composition such that it doesn’t induce a host response right away. And then, because of how that plaque accumulates, and how the community changes, how our body responds is different as well. Our group, when it made these discoveries, was looking at phenomena in young, healthy people, we recruited into what’s called the Experimental Gingivitis Model. It’s the only model system where you can give an infection in humans and resolve it. We were looking at the acute initial interactions in young, healthy people, and we saw that these phenotypes exist.
Kristopher A. Kerns, PhD
What the KL2 project aims to do was see if we could identify these different inflammatory responder types in people that have the most severe form of the disease, which is periodontitis. We use machine learning and built predictive models to see if we could say, “All right, you’re likely this responder type.”
If that was true (kind of circling back to my background in advocacy and policy) the way dental insurance works is you get two cleanings a year. That’s what they think works. But for people that are potentially high responders who get more inflammation, well, maybe those people need to have more than two cleanings a year, right? They need higher surveillance because gingivitis is reversible with hygiene, but when you progress from gingivitis to periodontitis, that’s irreversible. You get bone loss, you get irreversible tissue damage, and potential, you’re eroding the support of your teeth. And as we live longer, you’re going to want your teeth!
I think that’s the cool thing about dentistry, everybody has teeth. That’s what’s really exciting about our work, because the bacteria in our mouths impacts not only oral health but systemic health. We’re almost ready to publish in the next year. It’s just a really exciting place to be and exciting work right now.
Can you talk about how your work is translational?
We work with clinicians. We work directly with dentists and dental researchers and patients, and, getting back to that policy, if we can identify someone’s risk and potential severity of periodontal disease, we potentially could increase surveillance on those individuals with their practitioners. We can make sure that they don’t progress to the most severe form of the disease. That’s the translational aspect.
Your research goes right to the patients.
Yeah, that’s what translational science is. It’s working with people who are directly interacting with the problem and trying to come up with new ways to either recognize, avoid or treat. That’s what our center and our lab is really trying to do.
So, you heard about the KL2 program because you were already a TL1. How did you hear about the TL1 program?
As an early pre-doctoral student, you just need to find funding. At that time, Dr. Linda LeResche was the Director of Research here in the dental school, and she was heavily involved with ITHS [as the TL1 program co-director]. Through different consultation meetings with her on different awards I was applying for she said, “You should apply for this TL1 program.”
What specific aspects of the KL2 program have been the most helpful for your research?
I think getting outside of my bubble. Clinical research is very siloed, but with advances in support for translational and multidisciplinary research, I got to experience firsthand the value of working with people who were trained differently, who have the same problems just in a different tissue or a different disease.
We’re all trying to do the same thing. We all have the same goal of generally improving patient outcomes and health, just how we’re doing it is a little bit different.
So to me, the most valuable thing is the monthly training seminars. You’re forced to have this interaction with people that you would probably never interact with, and that stimulates thinking and it stimulates collaboration.
Every time I leave a meeting, I come back to my lab and I’m implementing things.
I’m actually working with another KL2 scholar, Dr. Ash McDonough who was part of last year’s cohort. She did a lot of single nuclei stuff and single cell work that I was just so fascinated with. We just put in a resubmission for an R03 grant together, really formalizing that collaboration which has been amazing.
So I’m not only learning all these things, but putting proof to concept, working with people directly that I would probably never have crossed paths with. And I think that’s exactly what the ITHS is meant to do.
Your KL2 appointment is up at the end of February 2025, correct?
I’m finishing up my tenure in the KL2 program, but I’m not going anywhere. I’ve been involved with ITHS for 5 years now and I’m already making sure that I’m going to stay involved. I’m now a part of the group reviewing the new applicants and I’ll likely continue with that, and plan on working with other aspects of ITHS as well. I’m in the dental school and we implement our clinical studies through the Regional Clinical Dental Research Center, which is funded by ITHS. We have multiple clinical trials being run down there right now.
A KL2 seminar meeting with Dr. Amory at left and Dr. Kerns across the room
And then there’s the direct mentorship through [ITHS Principal Investigator] John Amory who was the director of the KL2. He’s so smart and so experienced. He would just give you little tips and tricks for grants or papers, and it’s a huge difference, getting that interaction. And then Christy McKinney, she’s one of my mentors, in addition to being the new director of the KL2 program, and she came out of the School of Dentistry as well, so we have that bond. Those two people were just huge foundations for my developing career.
That’s the other thing. Now I’m a resource to people in the dental school. People come to me when they want to run clinical studies or they have questions about it. I’m an ambassador for that program, especially now that Dr. LeResche has retired, so I’m trying to pick up that stick. I’m super happy and super fortunate to be here!
So you’re putting in an R03 grant application with Ash McDonough. Do you have any other plans for the future?
We’ve got an R01 going in this summer at the National Institute of Dental Craniofacial Research. We have industry sponsored grants that we’re running through the Clinical Oral Microbiome Research Center. We’re really establishing our center, working with people at Fred Hutch and the Institute for Systems Biology. We’re working with people over in Microbiology.
Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about your work?
Support ITHS! You know, my research is just one small aspect.
More than ever now we need institutes supporting people that are bringing multidisciplinary teams together. It’s made my career. It is the future.
Because of the exponential growth of knowledge, it’s so hard to keep up, you have to work with other people who are experts in their fields, or you’ll just be wasting your time. It’s critical more than ever.
Thanks again for taking the time to share your story with us, and we look forward to seeing you around ITHS in the future!
