John Kuriyan has been reappointed as dean of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences for a second five-year term, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver announced. Kuriyan, the Mary Geddes Stahlman Chair and University Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Cell and Developmental Biology, will begin his new term Jan. 1, 2028, after his current appointment ends Dec. 31, 2027.
"John Kuriyan's scientific vision and steady leadership have strengthened Basic Sciences at a time when that strength has mattered most, and I am pleased to renew his appointment as dean," Raver said. "His external reviewers were unanimous in their praise, and I share their confidence that he will continue to be a transformative force for Vanderbilt."
Since becoming dean in January 2023, Kuriyan has led Basic Sciences through one of the most difficult federal research funding environments in decades. Under his direction, the school stabilized its finances without furloughs, salary freezes or layoffs, even as it continued to grow the number of research proposals submitted and the awards received.
Kuriyan has also recruited exceptional scientific leaders and invested personally in the development and success of junior faculty. Through the Vanderbilt Institute for Therapeutic Advances, he has articulated a distinctive vision that builds on Vanderbilt's strengths in chemical and structural biology while creating opportunities for partnership with Vanderbilt Health.
"I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue serving as dean of the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, and I'm deeply grateful to the faculty, staff and trainees who have made my first term so rewarding," Kuriyan said. "I am especially encouraged by the strong support of the university's leadership for our strategic vision, and I look forward to working together to build an exciting new chapter for Basic Sciences."
A LEADING SCIENTIST OF CELLULAR SIGNALING
Kuriyan's research investigates the proteins that carry out cellular signal transduction and DNA replication. His laboratory determines the three-dimensional structures of proteins and pairs that work with biochemical, biophysical and cell biological analyses to understand how they function.
His lab's work has revealed how several important enzymes called tyrosine kinases turn on and off. These include the Src family kinases, the Abl kinase, and the epidermal growth factor receptor. Because these enzymes play a role in cancer, they are key targets for new drugs. The Kuriyan lab's findings have helped explain how two Novartis drugs, Gleevec and Scemblix, block the version of the Abl kinase that causes leukemia.
The group has also deepened understanding of how other signaling proteins are built and controlled, and made major contributions to explaining how cells copy DNA at very high speed.
HONORS AND CAREER
Kuriyan was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008, the Royal Society of London as a foreign member in 2015, and the National Academy of Medicine in 2018. His prizes include the Stein & Moore Award of The Protein Society, the Merck Award of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Richard Lounsbery Award of the National Academy of Sciences, the Cornelius P. Rhoads Memorial Award of the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Eli Lilly Award of the American Chemical Society. In 2014, his alma mater, Juniata College, awarded him an honorary doctor of humane letters. He was a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences from 1989 to 1993.
Kuriyan earned his doctorate in 1986 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked under Gregory A. Petsko and Martin Karplus of Harvard University. He joined the faculty of The Rockefeller University in 1987 and was promoted to full professor in 1993. In 2001, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Distinguished Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and Chemistry. Kuriyan was an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for 32 years, from 1990 until he took up his current position at Vanderbilt University.
