Biochemical Journal Young Investigator Award

Dr. Yuko Hirano

Dr. Yuko Hirano was born in Kochi (Japan) on 18 July, 1975. She was awarded her Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences (The University of Tokyo) for work on the degradation of nuclear sterol regulatory element-binding proteins (SREBPs) by the ubiquitin-proteasome proteolytic pathway. Since 2003, she has been a post-doctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Dr. Keiji Tanaka at the Department of Molecular Oncology, The Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science. In her poster presentation entitled 'Identification of a novel chaperone complex involved in assembly of 20S proteasomes', new mechanisms responsible for correct assembly of 20S proteasomes were described. This work was performed with Dr. Shigeo Murata.