Murakami Honored as Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences

18 September 2006—Katsuhiko Murakami, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has been selected as a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a national philanthropy based in Philadelphia. The Pew Scholars awards are granted to junior faculty members at medical schools and research institutions across the United States to encourage research innovation and collaboration in biomedical fields. Since its founding in 1985, the Pew Charitable Trusts has funded nearly 400 scholars whose scientific discoveries have led to advances in the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases and disability.

As a Pew Scholar, Murakami receives a monetary award to help support his research over a four-year period. The long-term goal of his research is to understand the mechanism of transcription and its regulation. “Transcription is the major control process for gene regulation, and RNA polymerase (RNAP) is the central enzyme of transcription,” Murakami explains. “Determining the three-dimensional structures of RNAP and transcription complexes is essential to understanding their role in gene regulation.”

Using X-ray crystallography, Murakami determines the high-resolution structures of RNA polymerases from different kinds of organisms such as bacteriophages, bacteria, and archaea. The ultimate goal of this structural-analysis effort is to reveal all the structures at different stages of the transcription process: promoter recognition, transcription initiation, elongation, and termination. Murakami also uses biochemical and biophysical methods to understand the mechanisms of transcription and its regulation associated with these structures.

Murakami is a member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has published more than thirty scientific papers related to his research.

Prior to joining Penn State during the fall semester of 2003, Murakami was a postdoctoral research fellow and research associate at The Rockefeller University from 1998 to 2003. He also was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institute of Genetics in Japan from 1997 to 1998. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1992 and a master’s degree in chemistry in 1994 at the Yamaguchi University in Japan. He earned his doctoral degree in genetics at The Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Japan in 1997.

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