Message

Our research field is Structural Biology as our lab can be described as a "Protein Structural Biology lab". The aim of our laboratory is to create the structural basis of the biological molecules and to understand the biological functions from the structural and mechanistic viewpoints.

In living organism, various molecules work with specific three-dimensional shapes that are well suited for their particular functions. Structural biology can create the picture of the biological molecules and elucidate the molecular mechanisms from the physicochemical view point.

We believe that we cannot understand a protein’s function without knowing its structure.

As the methodology for structural analysis, we mainly make use of X-ray crystallography, which determines 3D structure of proteins at atomic resolution. In addition, we take small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM). We perform biochemical and biophysical experiments in parallel. Taking altogether, we aim to draw novel pictures about molecular mechanism of proteins.

We also aim to proceed with our research regarding important and interesting molecules from the biological, medical and pharmaceutical view point.

Toshiyuki Shimizu