Photo of Monica Kraft
Monica Kraft
Chair, Department of Medicine
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Professor, Medicine
Primary Department
Medicine
Department Affiliations
Medicine
(520) 626-7174
kraftm@email.arizona.edu
Work Summary
Monica Kraft's research focus is in the areas of adult asthma, the role of infection in asthma and the role of the distal lung in asthma and airway remodeling.
Research Interest
Monica Kraft, MD, is chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, and the Robert and Irene Flinn Endowed Professor of Medicine.Prior to joining the UA in 2014, Dr. Kraft was at Duke University, where she served as chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care, as the Charles C. Johnson, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, and as director of the Duke Asthma, Allergy and Airway Center. As vice chair for research in the Duke University Department of Medicine from 2009-2013, Dr. Kraft implemented several important initiatives to support the department’s research endeavors and was instrumental in the re-submission and renewal of Duke’s National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA).Dr. Kraft has more than 150 publications in the areas of adult asthma, the role of infection in asthma and the role of the distal lung in asthma and airway remodeling. Her work has appeared in such prestigious publications as the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and Chest. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Lung Association.

Publications

Ledford, J., Addison, K., Guerra, S., Rojas Quintero, J., Owen, C., Martinez, F., & Kraft, M. (2016). “Club cell secretory protein deficiency leads to altered lung function in naïve mice. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
BIO5 Collaborators
Stefano Guerra, Monica Kraft
Kraft, M. (1999). Corticosteroids and leukotrienes: chronobiology and chronotherapy. Chronobiology international, 16(5), 683-93.

Corticosteroids and leukotrienes play opposite roles in asthma. Corticosteroids, both endogenously secreted and exogenously administered, are antiinflammatory and are very effective in the treatment of asthma. They have also been evaluated chronotherapeutically and have been found to be very effective in reducing the enhanced airway inflammation and decrement in lung function associated with nocturnal worsening of asthma. Leukotrienes are potent proinflammatory and spasmogenic mediators that have been shown to be increased at night in patients with nocturnal asthma (NA). Leukotriene modifiers, a new class of medications to treat asthma, improve, but do not abolish, the symptoms and decrement in lung function associated with nocturnal asthma. However, they have not been evaluated chronotherapeutically. This article addresses the roles of corticosteroids and leukotrienes in nocturnal asthma and their position as therapeutic agents or targets for therapy.

Kraft, M. (2001). Safety and reproducibility of sputum induction in asthmatic subjects in a multicenter study. American Journal Respiratory Critical Care Medicine, 163(163), 1470-1475.
Martin, R. J., Kraft, M., & Rand Sutherland, E. (2009). Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference: Asthma: Insights and Expectations. Introduction and perspective. Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society, 6(3), 247-8.
Peters, S. P., Kunselman, S. J., Icitovic, N., Moore, W. C., Pascual, R., Ameredes, B. T., Boushey, H. A., Calhoun, W. J., Castro, M., Cherniack, R. M., Craig, T., Denlinger, L., Engle, L. L., DiMango, E. A., Fahy, J. V., Israel, E., Jarjour, N., Kazani, S. D., Kraft, M., , Lazarus, S. C., et al. (2010). Tiotropium bromide step-up therapy for adults with uncontrolled asthma. The New England journal of medicine, 363(18), 1715-26.

Long-acting beta-agonist (LABA) therapy improves symptoms in patients whose asthma is poorly controlled by an inhaled glucocorticoid alone. Alternative treatments for adults with uncontrolled asthma are needed.