Manabu Kurokawa

Dr. Kurokawa, a native of Japan, received a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine (equivalent to the D.V.M. in the United States) from Hokkaido University. He moved to the United States to pursue doctoral work at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, studying the signaling mechanisms of fertilization under the supervision of Dr. Rafael Fissore. Dr. Kurokawa conducted his postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Sally Kornbluth at Duke University Medical School, studying the regulation of apoptosis in cancer. Before joining Kent State University, he spent five years in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology (subsequently Molecular & Systems Biology) at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College as an Assistant Professor.

The broad goal of Dr. Kurokawa’s research program is to investigate the molecular mechanisms of cancer development and drug resistance. In particular, his research centers on two areas of investigation: 1) the role of the ubiquitin E3 ligase HUWE1 in cancer and other diseases, and 2) the regulation of lipid metabolism in tumor development and drug resistance. His laboratory utilizes novel mouse models together with modern molecular and biochemical techniques to address these questions. Dr. Kurokawa has published over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters (the most updated listing of papers from the Kurokawa Lab can be found in Google Scholar; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mkso-TAAAAAJ&hl=en). His work has been supported in part by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the Mary Kay Foundation, and the Cancer Research Institute.