Stephen Kurtz received his B.A. from Brown University and Ph.D. in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Chicago. He did postdoctoral training at Columbia University and has led research groups in the pharma/biotech industry and in the Portland VA Medical Center. His research is focused on identifying gene-targeted inhibitors of tumor cells isolated from patients with leukemias and aligning patterns of drug sensitivity with discrete genetic and clinical features of AML patients to understand the mechanisms underlying drug efficacy.