Among a wide variety of living organisms, our group is focusing on microorganisms owing to their great diversity and unique physiology. We are working on (i) the identification and characterization of biomolecules underlying the unique physiology of microorganisms, and (ii) their application to the development of industrially useful technologies (e.g., those for chemical/pharmaceutical manufacturing, waste treatment, and energy production). Currently, we are particularly interested in biomolecules derived from extremophiles, such as thermophiles.
We are studying the development of human pharmaceutical protein production systems in various bioreactors such as plants, insects and microorganisms. Especially, we are focusing on the glycosylation that affects the drug efficacy. Our challenge is to produce human friendly-recombinant pharmaceutical proteins with basic glycoscience and glycoengineering. We are in progress toward discovery of microorganisms with new and remarkable potentials with the international cooperation among Southeast Asian countries in the aspects of research and educational advancement.
What is life? To approach this simple but profound theme, in our laboratory, we research to observe and understand the molecular phenomena within a live cell, by bio-imaging. Specifically, we isolate the genes coding for luminescent proteins from light emitting organisms, and develop bio-sensors and imaging methods that will help understand life. These research will not only contribute to understand the fundamental phenomena of life, but will also be useful for medical purpose and drug discovery. In addition, we are developing technologies that can lead to innovative changes of our future society, such as electricity-free illumination system by inserting the genes coding for light emitting proteins into plant.
Protein crystallography and Cryo-EM is the major method to determine the atomic structure of protein molecules, in order to elucidate the molecular mechanism of highly organized biological systems. Our main aim of research is the atomic structure determination of the biological macromolecular assemblies including membrane protein complexes. Current Research Projects are “Structural studies of photosynthetic membrane protein complex and related redox enzymes”, “Crystal structure analysis of dynein motor” and “High resolution and damage-free structure analysis of metalloproteins”.
Top