Professor

John Kuriyan

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Molecular biologist; Chemist; Educator
Area
Biological Sciences
Specialty
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology
Elected
2008
Dr. John Kuriyan is the Dean of Basic Sciences, School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University. Kuriyan’s research concerns the atomic-level structure and mechanism of the enzymes and molecular switches that carry out cellular signal transduction. His laboratory uses x-ray crystallography to determine the three-dimensional structures of proteins involved in signaling, as well as biochemical, biophysical, and cell biological analyses to elucidate mechanisms. Breakthroughs from the lab have included determining the auto-inhibited structures of several tyrosine kinases, including Src family kinases and elucidating the mechanism of allosteric activation of the kinase domains of the EGF receptor. His laboratory has provided a fundamental understanding of the structure and regulation several other signaling proteins, including STATs, the Ras activator SOS, and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase-II. Their structural insights have helped understand how the misregulation of these enzymes is often coupled to cancer and immune diseases and has implications for the development of kinase-targeted drugs to treat these diseases. His lab has also made fundamental contributions to understanding the structural basis for high-speed DNA replication. Kuriyan’s achievements in science have been recognized by numerous honors, including a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Juanita College; the Merck Award, the Richard Lounsbery Award, the Cornelius Rhoads Memorial Award, the Eli Lilly Award, the DuPont-Merck Award of the Protein Society, the Schering-Plough Award, and a Pew Scholarship in the Biomedical Sciences. In addition to his American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership, he is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a foreign member of the Royal Society.
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