Biofunctional Chemistry Research Section

概要

A transition to renewable energy technologies requires new chemistry to learn from nature. Nature has
developed fantastic solutions to convert solar energy
to chemical energy and to utilize them in exceptionally
efficient manners for almost 3 billion years. It is our
challenge to understand the efficient bioenergetic processes of nature and to construct bio-inspired energy
utilization systems. The research interests in our group
focus on the design of biomacromolecules and their
assemblies for molecular recognition, catalysis, and
signal transduction in water, the solvent of life. We
take synthetic, organic chemical, biochemical and biophysical approaches to understand biological molecular recognition and chemical reactions. Proteins and
protein/nucleic acids assemblies are explored to realize the biomimetic function of biological systems,
such as visualization of cellular signals by fluorescent
biosensors, directed self-assembly of peptides and
proteins to build up nano-bio materials, tailoring artificial receptors and enzymes based on the complex of
RNA and a peptide or a protein, and reconstitution of
the functional assemblies of receptors and enzymes on
the nanoar-chitectures. The followings are the main research achievements in the fiscal year 2022.
2. Controlled assembly of fluorophores inside a
nanoliposome
Cellular compartmentalization plays an essential role
in organizing the complex and multiple biochemical
reactions in the cell. An artificial compartment would
provide powerful strategies to develop new biochemical tools for material production and diagnosis, but it
is still a great challenge to synthesize the compartments that encapsulate materials of interest while controlling their accurate locations, numbers, and stoichiometry. Chemical characteristics of a liposome-encapsulated compartment, which has great potential to locate various materials of interest with precise control
of their locations and numbers in the compartment,
were evaluated. A nanoliposome was constructed inside a ring-shaped DNA origami skeleton and further
equipped with a double-stranded DNA platform to assemble molecules of interest in the nanoliposome (Fig. ...