BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Watanabe, Kenji
Kenji Watanabe, Ph.D.
Associate professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Shizuoka, Shizuoka 422-8526, JAPAN
Phone: +81-54-264-5662, Fax: +81-54-264-5666, Email: kenji55@u-shizuoka-ken.ac.jp
Education:
1996
2000
2000
2001

B.S. Bioorganic chemistry, Hokkaido University
Ph.D. Organic chemistry, Hokkaido University
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin Madison, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professional Experience:
2009
2008
2008
2004-2008:
2001-2003:
2000-2001:

Associate professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka
Assistant professor, Research Core for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Okayama University
Research assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, Hokkaido University
Research assistant professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
University of Southern California
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
University of Wisconsin Madison

Academic Honors:
2010
2008
2006
2006
2005
2004

Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry Paper Award
The Japan Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry Society Award for
the Encourage of Young Scientists
Japan Young Scientist Research Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products
Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry Research Award
Japan Synthetic Organic Chemistry (Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.) Research Award
Japan Young Scientist Research Award In Natural Product Chemistry

Five Most Relevant Publications (out of 74):
1. Hotta, K., Chen, X., Paton, R. S., Minami, A., Li, H., Swaminathan, K., Mathews, I. I., Watanabe, K.,
Oikawa, H., Houk, K. N., Kim, C. Y. “Enzymatic catalysis of anti-Baldwin ring-closure in polyetherbiosynthesis.” Nature 2012, 483, 355-359.
2. Minami, A., Shimaya, M., Suzuki, G., Migita, A., Shinde, S. S., Watanabe, K., Tamura, T., Oguri, H.,Oikawa, H. “Sequential enzymatic epoxidation involved in polyether lasalocid biosynthesis.” J. Am.
Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 7246-7249.
3. Koketsu, K., Oguri, H., Watanabe, K., Oikawa, H. “Reconstruction of the saframycin core scaffold defines
dual Pictet-Spengler mechanisms.” Nat. Chem. Biol. 2010, 6, 408-410.
4. Bok, J. W., Chiang, Y. M., Szewczyk, E., Reyes-Domingez, Y., Davidson, A. D., Sanchez, J. F., Lo, H. C.,
Watanabe, K., Strauss, J., Oakley, B. R., Wang, C. C. C., Keller, N. P. “Chromatin-level regulation ofbiosynthetic gene clusters.” Nat. Chem. Biol. 2009, 5, 462-464.
5. Watanabe, K., Hotta, K., Nakaya, M., Praseuth, A. P., Wang, C. C. C., Inada, D., Takahashi, K., Fukushi,F., Oguri, H., Oikawa, H. “Escherichia coli allows efficient modular incorporation of newly isolatedquinomycin biosynthetic enzyme into echinomycin biosynthetic pathway for rational design andsynthesis of potent antibiotic unnatural natural product.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 9347–9353.
Five Other Publications:
1. Nakazawa, T., Ishiuchi, K., Praseuth, A., Noguchi, H., Hotta, K., Moriya, H., Watanabe, K. “Overexpressing
transcriptional regulator in Aspergillus oryzae activates a silent biosynthetic pathway to produce novel
polyketide.” ChemBioChem 2012, 13,855-861.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Watanabe, Kenji
2. Ishiuchi, K., Nakazawa, T., Ookuma, T., Sugimoto, T., Sato, M., Tsunematsu, Y., Ishikawa, N., Noguchi, H.,Hotta, K., Moriya, H., Watanabe, K. “Establishing a new methodology for genome mining and biosynthesisof polyketides and peptides through yeast molecular genetics.” ChemBioChem 2012, 13, 846-854.
3. Minami, A., Migita, A., Inada, D., Hotta, K., Watanabe, K., Oguri, H., Oikawa, H. “Enzymatic epoxide-opening
cascades catalyzed by a pair of epoxide hydrolases in the ionophore polyether biosynthesis.” Org. Lett.
2011, 13, 1638-1641.
4. Shichijo, Y., Migita, A., Oguri, H., Watanabe, M., Tokiwano, T., Watanabe, K., Oikawa, H. “Epoxide hydrolase
Lsd19 for polyether formation in the biosynthesis of Lasalocid A: direct experimental evidence onpolyene-polyepoxide hypothesis in polyether biosynthesis.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 12230-12231.
5. Koketsu, K., Oguri, H., Watanabe, K., Oikawa, H. “Enzymatic macrolactonizations in the presence of DNA
leading to triostin A analogs.” Chem. Biol. 2008, 15, 818-828.
Synergistic activities
Member of ACS.
I have reviewed manuscripts for ChemBioChem, Chem Biol. etc.
Collaborators and other affiliations
CollaboratorsProfessor Yi Tang, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, UCLA
Professor Chu-Young Kim, Department of Biological Sciences, The National University of Singapore
Professor Hideaki Oikawa, Department of Chemistry, Hokkaido University
Graduate Advisor
Professor Hideaki Oikawa. Hokkaido University, JAPAN
Postdoctoral Advisor
Professor Chaitan Khosla, Stanford University
Graduate Students Advised
Naoki Morimoto, Takashi Tochihara, Kozo Yamaguchi, Takayoshi Saruwatari, Noriyasu Ishikawa, Satru
Sugimoto, Ryuta Kobayashi, Hikaru Sugiura, Takashi Gotanda, Masaru Ichinoseki, Atsuko Nakane
Postdoctoral ResearcherDr. Takehito Nakazawa, Dr. Yuta Tsunematsu, Dr. Kan’ichiro Ishiuchi, Dr. Michio Sato
Teaching activities
I teach four classes a year at University of Shizuoka, averaging two per semester. I teach twoclasses of Organic Chemistry and Natural Product Chemistry for undergraduate students. Each of classes
has a class size of > 120 students offered to the entire School of Pharmacy. I also teach two classes forLaboratory work. One is for natural product chemistry, which is an undergraduate laboratory class focusedat teaching students the basic techniques of isolating natural product, stevioside, from plant (Stevia
rebaudiana Bertoni). The other is for synthetic chemistry, which is an undergraduate laboratory classfocused at teaching students the basic techniques of chemically synthesizing cinnamic acid by Witting
reaction. I strongly believe the combing two lab classes give a starting point to be an expert with chemistry
for undergraduate students.
I currently advise ten graduate students and three undergraduate students. I also advise four
postdoctoral fellows. During each summer, four high school students from Shizuoka will perform researchin my laboratory.

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