Kelly Kersten, PhD

Dr. Kersten is an Assistant Professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program at the NCI-designated Cancer Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP). Originally from the Netherlands, Dr. Kersten received her B.S. and M.S. from Utrecht University and performed her Ph.D. studies at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam working with Prof. Karin de Visser studying the role of neutrophils and gamma delta T cells in the metastatic spread of breast cancer. For her postdoctoral training, Dr. Kersten joined the lab of Prof. Max Krummel at the University of California San Francisco to study how tumor-associated myeloid cells affect anti-tumor T cell responses. In 2024, Dr. Kersten joined SBP to set up her independent research team focused on reciprocal immune cell interactions in the context of cancer.