Michael S Kuhns, PhD

Michael Kuhns, PhD, is a professor in the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and the senior scientific advisor for the Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies. He is also a member of the U of A Cancer Center and the BIO5 Institute.

Kuhns, who calls himself an “unabashed basic science researcher,” is contributing fundamental insights into the biology of the immune system that are being used to guide efforts to engineer novel molecular machines that might one day be used in immunotherapies.

Protective immune responses to vaccines, microbial infections and tumors require that coordinated responses emerge from “conversations” that take place between distinct cell types of the immune system. These conversations ensure that an appropriate response occurs at the appropriate place and time without inducing autoimmunity. Kuhns’ research focuses on understanding the inner workings of the molecular machines that mediate these private cell-to-cell conversations. 

To this end, his lab is working to: identify and characterize the molecular mechanisms that transfer information from the outside to the inside of a T cell; determine how these unique mechanisms each influence T cell fate decisions in vivo. His team then uses insights gained from their basic research to engineer novel molecules that can be used to direct T cells to execute desired responses. The ultimate goal is use their basic research to develop novel therapeutic strategies for complex diseases.

Kuhns received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona and his doctorate from the University of California Berkeley, where he studied the role that CTLA-4 plays in regulating CD4 T cell responses. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Stanford University, where he studied the architecture and function of the TCR-CD3 complex. He joined the Department of Immunobiology at the University of Arizona in 2010.