Kenichi Yokoyama

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Kenichi Yokoyama
Alma materTokyo Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Scientific career
FieldsBiochemistry, Enzymology, Chemical Biology, Natural Product Chemistry
InstitutionsDuke University School of Medicine
Websitehttps://sites.duke.edu/yokoyamalab/

Kenichi Yokoyama is an enzymologist, chemical biologist, and natural product biochemist originally from Tokyo, Japan. He is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University School of Medicine. In 2019, Yokoyama was awarded the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.

Education[edit]

Kenichi Yokoyama received both his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and PhD in Chemistry from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. For his doctoral work, he elucidated the catalytic mechanism of enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of aminoglycoside antibiotics under the guidance of Tadashi Eguchi.[1] From 2008 through 2011, he pursued postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with enzymologist JoAnne Stubbe. Together they collaborated on deciphering the novel features and catalytic mechanism of ribonucleotide reductases, a group of radical-based enzymes that convert ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides, the building blocks of genetic material.[2] In 2011, he began his independent career at Duke University as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry. In 2019, he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.

Research[edit]

The Yokoyama lab's research focuses on natural products, the small organic molecules made by living organisms in nature.[3] Those compounds possess a wide range of activities such as antimicrobial and antitumor. Yokoyama's aims are to characterize the biosynthetic pathways of such molecules and to understand the functions of enzymes that are involved in the process. To that end, his group utilizes techniques and knowledge from various fields including enzymology, biochemistry, molecular biology, bioinformatics, structural biology, and organic chemistry. One of the key achievements of the Yokoyama lab was the identification of a cryptic intermediate in the biosynthesis of molybdenum cofactor, an essential cofactor found in virtually all organisms including bacteria and human.[4] The lab also resolved a multidecade-long mystery in the field by revising the catalytic functions of the first two enzymes in the pathway, MoaA and MoaC.[5] Radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) enzyme, a superfamily of enzymes that use iron-sulfur clusters to perform diverse chemical transformations, is another focus of Yokoyama's research program.[6]

In 2018, Yokoyama was named one of 44 prominent scientists worldwide moving Biochemistry into the future.[7] In 2019, he was awarded the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, became the third faculty member at Duke University to receive this award after Salih Wakil in 1967 and Paul Modrich in 1983, who later received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Yokoyama, Kenichi; Numakura, Mario; Kudo, Fumitaka; Ohmori, Daijiro; Eguchi, Tadashi (2007-12-01). "Characterization and Mechanistic Study of a Radical SAM Dehydrogenase in the Biosynthesis of Butirosin". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 129 (49): 15147–15155. doi:10.1021/ja072481t. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 18001019.
  2. ^ Yokoyama, Kenichi; Smith, Albert A.; Corzilius, Björn; Griffin, Robert G.; Stubbe, JoAnne (2011-11-16). "Equilibration of Tyrosyl Radicals (Y356•, Y731•, Y730•) in the Radical Propagation Pathway of the Escherichia coli Class Ia Ribonucleotide Reductase". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 133 (45): 18420–18432. doi:10.1021/ja207455k. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 3236566. PMID 21967342.
  3. ^ "Yokoyama Lab | The frontier of enzymology and natural product biochemistry". Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  4. ^ Hover, Bradley M.; Loksztejn, Anna; Ribeiro, Anthony A.; Yokoyama, Kenichi (2013-05-08). "Identification of a Cyclic Nucleotide as a Cryptic Intermediate in Molybdenum Cofactor Biosynthesis". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 135 (18): 7019–7032. doi:10.1021/ja401781t. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 3777439. PMID 23627491.
  5. ^ Yokoyama, Kenichi; Li, Di; Pang, Haoran (2021-12-13). "Resolving the Multidecade-Long Mystery in MoaA Radical SAM Enzyme Reveals New Opportunities to Tackle Human Health Problems". ACS Bio & Med Chem Au. doi:10.1021/acsbiomedchemau.1c00046. PMC 9026282. PMID 35480226. S2CID 245212943.
  6. ^ "Radical SAM enzymology | Yokoyama Lab". Retrieved 2022-03-03.
  7. ^ Schepartz, Alanna (2018-01-09). "Introducing the "Future of Biochemistry" Special Issue". Biochemistry. 57 (1): 1–8. doi:10.1021/acs.biochem.7b01259. ISSN 0006-2960. PMID 29310439.
  8. ^ "Ken Yokoyama, PhD wins Pfizer Award | Duke Department of Biochemistry". www.biochem.duke.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-03.

External links[edit]

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