Researcher's Profile

March 2000	Chemistry and Biotechnology, Master of Engineering, The University of Tokyo(UTokyo)
November 2005	Ph.D. (Dr. rer. Nat.), Free University of Berlin
December 2005	Postdoctoral Researcher, The Pennsylvania State University
December 2006	Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Southern California
April 2007	JSPS Researcher for abroad
April 2008	Assistant Professor, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, UTokyo
January 2009	Assistant professor (tenure-track ), Kyoto University
October 2009	PRESTO Researcher, JST
April 2013	Lecturer, Kyoto University
July 2013	Professor, Osaka University
April 2014	Professor, Department of Applied Chemistry School of Engineering, UTokyo
July 2014	Professor, RCAST, UTokyo

　 　

Proteins are composed of amino acid residues, and they function as catalyst, transporter, sensor, antibodies, etc. You might possibly think that it is hard to understand protein functions on the basis of their apparently complicated molecular structures. On the other hand, protein functions should be able to be explained solely by basic molecular chemistry as long as they are molecules.“The shape of a protein molecule can determine the function of the protein molecule” - keeping this in mind, we clarify protein functions by using protein crystal structures and theoretical approaches. Just computing is not scientifically significant. Our challenge is to deduce commonly important messages in protein science, by analyzing target proteins.

Target: water-splitting reaction in O2-evolving Photosystem II (for designing future artificial photosynthesis systems), long-distance electron transfer/proton transfer reactions in protein environments, enzymatic reactions, etc.