Clinical Trials and Medical Case Reports

Biography

Dr. Kurosu has a long-term interest in identifying new drug targets for bacterial infections and cancer chemotherapeutics. He has a broad background in organic chemistry/medicinal chemistry and protein chemistry, with special training and expertise in preclinical drug discovery (hit to lead). His research includes antibacterial and anticancer drug discoveries associated with Gram-negative bacteria, Mycobacterium spp., spore-forming bacteria (e.g., Clostridioides difficile), and solid cancers (e.g., pancreatic, breast, and ovarian cancers). As PIs on several NIH-and internally funded programs, he has studied essential enzymes for growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and glycosyl transferases for pancreatic cancers. Through these projects, he successfully collaborated with other researchers (cancer biologists, structural biochemists, microbiologists, enzymologists, geneticist, industrial medicinal chemists, pharmacologists, and a formulation scientist). One of the notable drug discovery projects is that he contributed to develop eribulin, a halichondrin B analogue with a Harvard scientist and the industrial scientists. He has developed concise syntheses of complex natural and unnatural molecules, and design/synthesize chiral small molecules, and generates small optimized libraries. He also develops convenient assays amenable to HTS. These efforts have resulted in the discovery of several new drug leads effective against dormant M. tuberculosis, C. difficile spores, and MDR-Acinetobacter baumannii. A new anticancer DPAGT1 inhibitor developed in his group is innovative. Our lab has set up cytotoxicity assays against a panel of cancer cell lines and bacterial growth inhibitory assays against batteries of pathogens including BSL3 bacteria. Basic biochemical assays and pharmacological evaluation including in vitro ADMET studies have been performed in his lab.

Research Interest

Antibacterial and anticancer drug discovery