Masato Kato, PhD

Assistant Professor
Biochemistry, Internal Medicine

Contact Information

UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, Texas 75390

Office Phone: 214-648-3338
Office Fax: 214-648-8856

masato.kato@utsouthwestern.edu

Biography

2010 – present Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biochemistry and Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern

2004 - 2010 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern

1999 - 2004 Postdoctoral Fellow in Professor Ellenberger’s group, Dept. of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School

1998 - 1999 Postdoctoral Fellow in Professor Hakoshima’s group at Dept. of Molecular Biology, Nara Institute of Science and Technology

Education

Graduate SchoolNara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan (1998)

Research Interests

Biochemistry
NMR
Protein-protein and protein-RNA/DNA interaction
RNA granules
X-ray crystallography

Publications

Featured
Modular Architecture of the Bacteriophage T7 Primase Couples RNA Primer Synthesis to DNA Synthesis

Kato, M., Ito, T., Wagner, G., Richardson, C. C. and Ellenberger, T , Molecular Cell , 2003; (11):1349-1360

Featured
Insights into multistep phosphorelay from the crystal structure of the C-terminal HPt domain of ArcB

Kato, M., Mizuno, T., Shimizu, T. and Hakoshima, T , Cell , 1997; (88):717-723

Featured
Three-dimensional structure of a DNA repair enzyme, 3-methyladenine DNA glycosylase II, from Escherichia coli

Yamagata, Y., Kato, M., Odawara, K., Tokuno, Y., Nakashima, Y., Matsushima, N., Yasumura, K., Tomita, K., Ihara, K., Fujii, Y., Nakabeppu, Y., Sekiguchi, M. and Fujii, S , Cell , 1996; (86):311-318

Distinct Structural Mechanisms for Inhibition of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase Isoforms by AZD7545, Dichloroacetate and Radicicol.

Kato, M., Li, J., Chuang, J. L. and Chuang, D. T. , Structure. , 2007; (15):992-1004

A synchronized substrate-gating mechanism revealed by cubic-core structure of the bovine branched-chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase complex.

Kato, M., Wynn, R. M., Chuang, J. L., Brautigam, C. A., Custorio, M. and Chuang, D. T. , EMBO J. , 2006; (25):5983-5994

Crystal structure of pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 3 bound to lipoyl domain 2 of human pyruvate dehydrogenase complex.

Kato, M., Chuang, J. L., Tso, C.-S., Wynn, R. M. and Chuang, D. T. , EMBO J , 2005; (24):1763-1774

Molecular mechanism for regulation of the human mitochondrial branched-chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase complex by phosphorylation.

Wynn, R. M., Kato, M., Machius, M., Chuang, J. L., Li, J., Tomchick, D. R., and Chunag, D. T. , Structure , 2004; (12):2185-96

Honors/Awards

HFSP Young Investigators Award

(2008)

Uehara Memorial Foundation

(2001)

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Abroad

(1999)

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for Young Scientists

(1996)