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Akira Kawamura

Akira Kawamura

Associate Professor and Chair

Akira Kawamura is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry.

See Contact Details

Profile

Dr. Akira Kawamura received a BS and MS from the University of Tokyo and a PhD from Columbia University. He did his postdoc at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. At Hunter College, he teaches courses in organic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry and computational drug discovery, and conducts research on ways of deciphering chemical communications in nature. Dr. Kawamura's work has been widely published in research journals.

Educational Background

  • The University of Tokyo (BS 1992)
  • The University of Tokyo (MS 1994)
  • Columbia University (PhD 1999)
  • The Scripps Research Institute (Postdoc, 1999-2002)

Courses

Courses taught have included:

  • CHEM32200 Organic Chemistry 3 (2D NMR Module)
  • CHEM33300 Computational Drug Discovery BICM75000
  • Bioorganic Chemistry (First Half, CUNY Graduate Center)

Research

Research Focus

  • Organic Chemistry

Research Statement

Deciphering chemical communications in nature: Chemistry is the common language used in nature.

Various communications in nature, such as animal-microbe interactions, plant-microbe interactions, and microbe-microbe interactions, are mediated by a wide variety of chemical messages or "molecular words."

The current focus of this research program is to characterize the structures and biological activities of molecular words for microbe-microbe interactions. Molecular mechanism of immune-boosting plants: Many medicinal plants are known to stimulate innate immune cells, such as monocytes and macrophages. However, the molecular mechanism by which these plants exhibit the immunostimulatory effects remains to be clarified.

Our study revealed that the immunostimulatory factor in some medicinal plants is not produced by plants but by plant-associated bacteria. Our current focus is to characterize the interactions between bacterial and plant factors, which collectively give rise to safe and effective immunostimulatory effects.

Selected Publications

  • Kalpana, K., Shen, Y., Iyenar, R., Tsuji, M., Kawamura, A. Cell-line based assay for the toxicity/benefit analysis of lipopolysaccharides in plants. Chemical Biology & Drug Design. 2019; accepted for publication.
  • Kalpana, K., Montenegro, D., Romero, G., Peralta, X., Akgol Oksuz, B., Heguy, A., Tsuji, M., Kawamura, A. Abundance of plant-associated Gammaproteobacteria correlates with immunostimulatory activity of Angelica sinensis. Medicines 2019; 6(2): pii: E62. doi: 10.3390/medicines6020062. PubMed PMID: 31159200; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6631519.
  • Li, X., Huang, J., Kawamura, A., Funakoshi, R., Porcelli, S.A., Tsuji, M. Co-localization of a CD1d-binding glycolipid with an adenovirus-based malaria vaccine for a potent adjuvant effect. Vaccine. 2017; 35(24):3171-3177. NIHMSID: NIHMS872248 PubMed [journal] PMID: 28483194, PMCID: PMC5489412
  • Kawamura, A., Washington, I., Mihai, D.M., Bartolini, F., Gundersen, G.G., Mark, M.T., Nakanishi, K. Identification of ginkgolide targets in brain by photoaffinity labeling. Chemical Biology & Drug Design. 2017; 89(4):475-481. NIHMSID: NIHMS824846 PubMed [journal] PMID: 27743504, PMCID: PMC5378617 (Featured on the cover)
  • Mihai, D.M., Hall, S., Deng, H., Welch, C.J., Kawamura, A. Benzophenone and its analogs bind to human glyoxalase 1. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 2015; 25(22):5349-51. NIHMSID: NIHMS726569 PubMed [journal] PMID: 26420066, PMCID: PMC4628877
  • Li, X., Kawamura, A., Andrews, C.D., Miller, J.L., Wu, D., Tsao, T., Zhang, M., Oren, D., Padte, N.N., Porcelli, S.A., Wong, C.H., Kappe, S.H., Ho, D.D., Tsuji, M. Colocalization of a CD1d-Binding Glycolipid with a Radiation-Attenuated Sporozoite Vaccine in Lymph Node-Resident Dendritic Cells for a Robust Adjuvant Effect. Journal of Immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950). 2015; 195(6):2710-21. NIHMSID: NIHMS708897 PubMed [journal] PMID: 26254338, PMCID: PMC4561196
  • Montenegro, D., Kalpana, K., Chrissian, C., Sharma, A., Takaoka, A., Iacovidou, M., Soll, C.E., Aminova, O., Heguy, A., Cohen, L., Shen, S., Kawamura, A. Uncovering potential 'herbal probiotics' in Juzen-taiho-to through the study of associated bacterial populations. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 2015; 25(3):466-9. NIHMSID: NIHMS651189 PubMed [journal] PMID: 25547935, PMCID: PMC4297534

Contact Details

Akira Kawamura

Chemistry
68th Street North 1312
(212) 650-3095
chairche@hunter.cuny.edu
Chemistry
68th Street North 1312
(212) 650-3095
akira.kawamura@hunter.cuny.edu

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695 Park Ave NY, NY 10065
(212) 772-4000

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