Dr. Masashi Ueki
Senior Research Scientist,
Chemical Biology Department
Phone: 04 463 5339
Email: uemasa@riken.jp
Nearest Fax: 04 463 5331
Research Interests
Many microorganisms produce secondary metabolites, small molecules which are not essential for their growth. Recent microbial genome analyses reveal that all microorganisms possess much more various secondary metabolites than we thought. However, most biosynthetic pathways of secondary metabolites appear to be silent or repressed by unknown mechanisms.
My research goals include developing strategies to revive the silent biosynthetic pathways and identify unknown repressors, thus revealing fascinating new microbial metabolites.
Selected Publications
Simizu S., Teruya T., Nogawa T., Aono H., Ueki M., Uramoto M., Kobayashi Y., Osada H. Deamino-hydroxy-phoslactomycin B, a biosynthetic precursor of phoslactomycin, induces myeloid differentiation in HL-60 cells. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 383, 406-410 (2009)
Ueki M, Galonic DP, Vaillancourt FH, Garneau-Tsodikova S, Yeh E, Vosburg DA, Schroeder FC, Osada H, Walsh CT. Enzymatic generation of the antimetabolite gamma, gamma-dichloroaminobutyrate by NRPS and mononuclear iron halogenase action in a streptomycete Chem. Biol., 13, 1183-1191 (2006)
Nakazawa J, Yajima J, Usui T, Ueki M, Takatsuki A, Imoto M, Toyoshima YY & Osada H. A novel action of terpendole E on the motor activity of mitotic kinesin Eg5. Chem. Biol., 10, 131-137 (2003)
Prasain JK, Ueki M, Stefanowicz P & Osada H. Rapid screening and identification of cytochalasins by electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. J. Mass. Spectrometry, 37, 283-291 (2002)
Ueki M, Machida K, Taniguchi M. Antifungal Inhibitors of Mitochondrial Respiration: Discovery and Prospects for Development. Current Opinion in Anti-infective Investigational Drugs 2, 387-398 (2000) Review