William Kraus, Ph.D.

W. Lee Kraus, PhD, is the Director of the Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences. He is also Professor and Vice Chair for Basic Sciences in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. Dr. Kraus also holds the Cecil H. and Ida Green Distinguished Chair in Reproductive Biology Sciences.

Dr. Kraus did his graduate research on the regulation of steroid hormone receptor activity in the laboratory of Dr. Benita S. Katzenellenbogen at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and received his PhD in 1994.

He did his postdoctoral research on the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation with chromatin in the laboratory of Dr. Jim Kadonaga at the University of California, San Diego. During his postdoctoral work, Dr. Kraus was supported by fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society, California Division.

Prior to joining the faculty at UT Southwestern, Dr. Kraus was a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University in Ithaca. He also held a joint appointment in the Department of Pharmacology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City.

Dr. Kraus has been supported by a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences/Reproductive Biology from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, as well as grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Endocrine Society, and the National Science Foundation.

Undergraduate	Cornell University (1989)
Graduate School	University of Illinois Urbana Campus (1991), Physiology
Graduate School	University of Illinois Urbana Campus (1994), Physiology

• Cancer biology (esp. breast cancer)
• Chromatin structure and gene regulation
• Hormonal signaling
• Molecular physiology of reproduction, inflammation, and adipogenesis

Featured Publications

A rapid, extensive, and transient transcriptional response to estrogen signaling in breast cancer cells.

Hah N, Danko CG, Core L, Waterfall JJ, Siepel A, Lis JT, Kraus WL Cell 2011 May 145 4 622-34

PARP-1 regulates chromatin structure and transcription through a KDM5B-dependent pathway.

Krishnakumar R, Kraus WL Mol. Cell 2010 Sep 39 5 736-49

The PARP side of the nucleus: molecular actions, physiological outcomes, and clinical targets.

Krishnakumar R, Kraus WL Mol. Cell 2010 Jul 39 1 8-24

The histone variant macroH2A1 marks repressed autosomal chromatin, but protects a subset of its target genes from silencing.

Gamble MJ, Frizzell KM, Yang C, Krishnakumar R, Kraus WL Genes Dev. 2010 Jan 24 1 21-32

Reciprocal binding of PARP-1 and histone H1 at promoters specifies transcriptional outcomes

Krishnakumar R., Gamble M. J., Frizzell K. M., Berrocal J. G., Kininis M., and Kraus W. L. Science 2008 319 819-821

Selective recognition of distinct classes of coactivators by a ligand-inducible activation domain

Acevedo M. L., Lee K. C., Stender J. D., Katzenellenbogen B. S., Kraus W. L. Molecular Cell 2004 13 725-738

Modulation of chromatin structure and transcription by nucleosome-binding properties of PARP-1

Kim M. Y., Mauro S. A., Gevry N., Lis J. T., Kraus W. L. Cell 2004 119 803-814

Activation of estrogen receptor a by raloxifene through an activating protein-1-dependent tethering mechanism in human cervical epithelial cancer cells: A role for c-Jun N-terminal kinase.

Fogarty EA, Matulis CK, Kraus WL Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 2012 Jan 348 1 331-8

Genome-wide analysis reveals PADI4 cooperates with Elk-1 to activate c-Fos expression in breast cancer cells.

Zhang X, Gamble MJ, Stadler S, Cherrington BD, Causey CP, Thompson PR, Roberson MS, Kraus WL, Coonrod SA PLoS Genet. 2011 Jun 7 6 e1002112

A one and a two … expanding roles for poly(ADP-ribose) polymerases in metabolism.

Luo X, Kraus WL Cell Metab. 2011 Apr 13 4 353-5

• Cecil H. and Ida Green Distinguished Chair in Reproductive Biology Sciences
  (2010)
• Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Students in Independent Research Award
  (2008)
• Richard E. Weitzman Memorial Award from the Endocrine Society
  (2007)
• Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  (2006)
• Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Young Faculty Teaching Excellence Award
  (2004)
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, Reproductive Biology
  (1998)