Dr.
Mitzi Irene Kuroda
Harvard Medical School
Geneticist; Educator
Area
Biological Sciences
Specialty
Cellular and Developmental Biology
Elected
2012
Dr. Mitzi Irene Kuroda is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Kuroda's research focuses on epigenetic inheritance of chromatin, using Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. Epigenetic inheritance of chromatin organization plays a major role in the fidelity of gene expression patterns during development. A striking example is dosage compensation, in which X linked gene expression is made equivalent in males (XY) and females (XX). In mammals, this occurs by X-inactivation in females. In contrast, in the fruitfly, Drosophila, dosage compensation increases transcription of X-linked genes in males. Kuroda is known for her contributions to understanding the molecular basis of dosage compensation in Drosophila. She discovered that the dosage compensation protein MLE binds to discrete sites along the male X chromosome in Drosophila, showing that X-linked genes are up-regulated in males to achieve dosage compensation through association with each gene. She revealed that the male-specific lethal (msl) genes encode subunits of an MSL complex that binds to the X chromosome of males to regulate histone H4K16 acetylation, thereby linking it to chromatin regulation. Kuroda also found that formation of the MSL complex is prevented in females by SXL repressing translation of the key dosage compensation gene, msl2. She further showed that MSL binding is RNA-dependent and discovered, with Ronald Davis, that the noncoding roX RNAs are required for MSL spreading along chromatin. Her lab continues to investigate the molecular basis of dosage compensation in Drosophila, as well as epigenetic silencing in flies and chromatin-driven oncogenesis in human cells. Kuroda was the recipient of an NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award and a Searle Scholar Award, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her publications appear in numerous well-respected journals including Genes & Development, Nature, Cell, and Science.
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