ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2024
The Young Physician-Scientist Awards (YPSA) recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
About the awardee
Naoka Murakami, MD, PhD is a transplant nephrologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Murakami received her MD and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from University of Tokyo. She completed residency training in internal medicine at Toranomon Hospital in Japan, and Mount Sinai Beth Israel in NY, and a joint nephrology fellowship at BWH and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Murakami carried out her post-doctoral studies in transplant immunology at Transplant Research Center at BWH.
Dr. Murakami’s research focus is to better understand the roles of co-inhibitory molecules (e.g. PD-1) in transplant- and self-tolerance, through studying cancer immunotherapy-associated adverse events. She uses a novel transgenic animal model to study the mechanisms how antigen-specific T cells infiltrate into kidney and tumor, with a goal to uncouple tumor-directed immune response from unwanted kidney/ transplant-directed immune response. She conducted foundational work in immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-associated acute allograft rejection in kidney transplant recipients that is published in Kidney International, Nature Communications and Journal of Clinical Oncology. Her research has been supported by NIH/NIDDK K08 Award and American Society of Nephology Carl Gottschalk Career Development Award.
In addition to basic and translational research, Dr. Murakami is passionate about improving outcomes of patients living with cancer and transplantation. She is a co-founder of American Society of Onconephrology and organizes annual Transplant Oncology Conference to help raise awareness of cancer after organ transplantation.