Research & Clinical Summary

Dr. Masaoki Kawasumi is a photobiology and skin cancer researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle.  During medical school, Masaoki had the opportunity to work with Masafumi Nishizawa, PhD (Microbiology, Keio University), elucidating the regulation of cell cycle progression in yeast.  After graduating from Keio University School of Medicine, Dr. Kawasumi received PhD training in the neuroscience field (Dissertation Adviser: Ikuo Nishimoto, MD, PhD, Pharmacology, Keio University). He generated a knock-in mouse model for Alzheimer’s disease that recapitulated memory deficits analogous to those in humans.

In 2004, Dr. Kawasumi joined Dr. Nghiem’s laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2006, Dr. Kawasumi moved from Boston to Seattle when Dr. Nghiem moved his laboratory to the University of Washington. Since then, Dr. Kawasumi has been conducting research in skin cancer biology, particularly addressing how cells respond to UV damage and how the DNA damage response can be harnessed to prevent UV-associated skin cancers, the most prevalent cancers in the U.S.  After completing postdoctoral work with Paul Nghiem, Dr. Kawasumi launched a research laboratory in 2016 at the University of Washington Dermatology.

The Kawasumi Lab focuses on elucidating molecular mechanisms of UV-mediated diseases (skin cancer and lupus). His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and Dermatology Foundation.

Interests: DNA damage responses, UV skin carcinogenesis, UV-induced DNA lesions (CPD and 6-4PP)

Publications

The following publications were retrieved from PubMed:

Kawasumi M, Bradner JE, Tolliday N, Thibodeau R, Sloan H, Brummond KM, Nghiem P,
“Identification of ATR-Chk1 pathway inhibitors that selectively target p53-deficient cells without directly suppressing ATR catalytic activity.”
Cancer research 74.24 (2014 Dec 15): 7534-45.

Paulson KG, Lewis CW, Redman MW, Simonson WT, Lisberg A, Ritter D, Morishima C, Hutchinson K, Mudgistratova L, Blom A, Iyer J, Moshiri AS, Tarabadkar ES, Carter JJ, Bhatia S, Kawasumi M, Galloway DA, Wener MH, Nghiem P,
“Viral oncoprotein antibodies as a marker for recurrence of Merkel cell carcinoma: A prospective validation study.”
Cancer 123.8 (2017 Apr 15): 1464-1474.

Calses PC, Dhillon KK, Tucker N, Chi Y, Huang JW, Kawasumi M, Nghiem P, Wang Y, Clurman BE, Jacquemont C, Gafken PR, Sugasawa K, Saijo M, Taniguchi T,
“DGCR8 Mediates Repair of UV-Induced DNA Damage Independently of RNA Processing.”
Cell reports 19.1 (2017 Apr 4): 162-174.

Hung KF, Liao PC, Chen CK, Chiu YT, Cheng DH, Kawasumi M, Kao SY, Lo JF,
“ASB6 Promotes the Stemness Properties and Sustains Metastatic Potential of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells by Attenuating ER Stress.”
International journal of biological sciences 15.5 (2019): 1080-1090.

Lee JW, Ratnakumar K, Hung KF, Rokunohe D, Kawasumi M,
“Deciphering UV-induced DNA Damage Responses to Prevent and Treat Skin Cancer.”
Photochemistry and photobiology 96.3 (2020 May): 478-499.

Skopelja-Gardner S, An J, Tai J, Tanaka L, Sun X, Hermanson P, Baum R, Kawasumi M, Green R, Gale M Jr, Kalus A, Werth VP, Elkon KB,
“The early local and systemic Type I interferon responses to ultraviolet B light exposure are cGAS dependent.”
Scientific reports 10.1 (2020 May 13): 7908.

Hung KF, Sidorova JM, Nghiem P, Kawasumi M,
“The 6-4 photoproduct is the trigger of UV-induced replication blockage and ATR activation.”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117.23 (2020 Jun 9): 12806-12816.

Chen CY, Kawasumi M, Lan TY, Poon CL, Lin YS, Wu PJ, Chen YC, Chen BH, Wu CH, Lo JF, Weng RR, Sun YC, Hung KF,
“Adaptation to Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Enhances Resistance of Oral Cancer Cells to Cisplatin by Up-Regulating Polymerase η and Increasing DNA Repair Efficiency.”
International journal of molecular sciences 22.1 (2020 Dec 31): .

Chang YA, Wu YY, Lin CT, Kawasumi M, Wu CH, Kao SY, Yang YP, Hsu CC, Hung KF, Sun YC,
“Animal models of dry eye: Their strengths and limitations for studying human dry eye disease.”
Journal of the Chinese Medical Association : JCMA 84.5 (2021 May 1): 459-464.