Akane Kawamura is a Japanese chemist who is Professor of Chemical Biology at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public university, public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is ...

in the UK. Her research considers the chemistry of epigenetics. She was awarded the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society (professional association) in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the Ro ...

Jeremy Knowles Award for her development of chemical probes to study biological processes.

Early life and education

Kawamura was an undergraduate student in chemistry at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. She remained at Oxford for graduate research, where she worked alongside Edith Sim on structural investigations into eukaryotes. After completing her doctorate, she moved into the biotechnology sector, where she worked on drug discovery. She returned to academia in 2009, when she joined Christopher J. Schofield at Oxford and worked on the development of chemical probes.

Research and career

In 2012, Kawamura was awarded a

British Heart Foundation The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a cardiovascular research charity in the United Kingdom. It funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, and runs influencing work aimed at shaping public policy ...

Centre of Research Excellence Senior Fellowship and a

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship. She was made a lecturer in 2016 and an associate professor in 2019. Her research considers epigenetics, with a focus on the methylation of DNA. She studies the enzymes and proteins that regulate methylation states. In 2023, Kawamura was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry's Jeremy Knowles Award for her work on the development of chemical probes to study biological processes.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawaura, Akane Living people Academics of Newcastle University Alumni of the University of Oxford Year of birth missing (living people)