Hisao Yokota
Papers
3
Total Citations
50
H-Index
3
About
Hisao Yokota is a structural biologist whose research has made meaningful contributions to our understanding of protein architecture in both thermophilic archaea and minimalist bacterial pathogens. Working at the intersection of structural genomics and biochemistry, Yokota has applied X-ray crystallography to elucidate the three-dimensional structures of functionally significant and previously uncharacterized proteins. His most celebrated work — the 2005 crystal structure of nicotinate phosphoribosyltransferase from *Thermoplasma acidophilum*, which has garnered 38 citations — revealed a distinctive three-domain architecture and advanced our understanding of NAD biosynthesis in extremophilic organisms. Yokota has also contributed to the Berkeley Structural Genomics Center's ambitious initiative to systematically resolve protein structures from minimal-genome pathogens such as *Mycoplasma pneumoniae* and *M. genitalium*, organisms implicated in a range of human diseases including atypical pneumonia. His structural characterization of a novel single-stranded DNA binding protein and conserved hypothetical proteins from these pathogens has helped illuminate the functional repertoire encoded within some of biology's smallest genomes, offering valuable insights for both basic science and potential therapeutic targeting.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2
- 3