Kenro Kusumi, a genome biologist and professor, Dean of Natural Sciences in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Early life and education

Kusumi was raised in Raleigh and attended high school at the

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) is a two-year, public residential high school located in Durham, North Carolina, that focuses on the intensive study of science, mathematics and technology. It accepts rising juniors ...

in Durham, where he was a 1984 national winner of the NASA Space Shuttle Student Involvement Project. Kusumi received his AB in Biochemical Sciences from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

in 1988 and PhD in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1997 with doctoral advisor Eric S. Lander. He was a Hitchings-Elion Fellow of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund in the laboratory of developmental biologist

Robb Krumlauf Robb Krumlauf is an American developmental biologist. He is best known for researching the Hox family of transcription factors. He is most interested in understanding the role of the Hox genes in the hindbrain and their role in areas of animal de ...

at the National Institute for Medical Research in London.

Career

Kusumi was assistant professor at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is a children's hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with its primary campus located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia in the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The h ...

from 2001 to 2006, where he served as Director of Pediatric Orthopaedic Basic Science Research. He and his collaborators had used genomic approaches to identify the first genetic cause of the congenital spinal disorder,

spondylocostal dysostosis Spondylocostal dysostosis, also known as Jarcho-Levin syndrome (JLS), is a rare, heritable axial skeleton growth disorder. It is characterized by widespread and sometimes severe malformations of the vertebral column and ribs, shortened thorax, an ...

, caused by mutations in delta-like 3 (

DLL3 Delta-like 3 (Drosophila), also known as DLL3, is a protein which in humans is encoded by the ''DLL3'' gene. Two transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been identified for this gene. Function This gene encodes a member of the delt ...

), and he contributed to subsequent research identifying mutations in the

LFNG Beta-1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase lunatic fringe, (Lunatic Fringe), is a protein encoded in humans by the ''LFNG'' gene. This gene encodes a member of the glycosyltransferase superfamily. The encoded protein is a single-pass type II Golgi m ...

and HES7 genes for related congenital axial skeletal disorders. Kusumi is Dean of Natural Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. Prior, he held the position of Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. From 2019 to 2021, he was Director of ASU's School of Life Sciences, the university's first interdisciplinary school established in 2003. Kusumi is a member of the

LGBTQIA+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is an ...

community. He serves as mentor in ASU's HUES program and GRADient organization for gender and sexual minority graduate students and their allies. Kusumi's research at ASU uses genome biology to help conserve and study the functional adaptations of reptiles. Kusumi has sequenced the genome of the threatened Mojave desert tortoise ( ''Gopherus agassizii'') as a tool for conservation efforts. Kusumi has led the first genome-scale analysis of accelerated evolution associated with the anole lizard's functional adaptations. His group has also uncovered sets of genes that are critical in the ability of anole lizards to adapt and regenerate parts of their bodies.

Personal life

Kusumi is married to Stephen Pratt, professor at Arizona State University.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kusumi, Kenro Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Arizona State University faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Harvard College alumni People from Raleigh, North Carolina 20th-century American biologists 21st-century American biologists