Japanese Society of Microscopy Paper Award
Professor Ayumi Koike and Educational professor Hiromi Yoda, Department of Applied Chemistry and Biology, have been selected for the 39th, Academic Year of 2024, Japanese Society of Microscopy Paper Award, applied Research Biology Division/BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES for their paper published in the English journal “Microscopy”, published by the Japanese Society of Microscopy. On Jun 4th, 2024, the award ceremony and award lecture were held at the 80th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Microscopy at Makuhari Messe.
The “Paper Award” is given to the most outstanding academic or technical paper published in Microscopy over the past two years.
Awarded Paper
“TEM and STEM-EDS evaluation of metal nanoparticle encapsulation in GroEL/GroES complexes according to the reaction mechanism of chaperonin”
Hiromi Yoda and Ayumi Koike-Takeshita
Microscopy (2021) 70 (3): 289-296
Research Outline
Chaperonins are proteins with a nanocapsule-type structure that repeatedly open and close in specific intervals. By controlling the reaction of chaperonins in the test tube using the knowledge of their in vivo reaction mechanism that we have revealed so far, we have succeeded in sequentially confining artificial metallic nanoparticles of approximately 5 nm in diameter in the two cavities of the chaperonins. Metal nanoparticles with high aggregation properties can now be stably dispersed in aqueous solution and also placed at close distances of a few nm. The application of this technology is expected in biosensors, artificial photosynthesis, and drug delivery. This paper is a summary of some of the results of the research conducted under the MEXT's Support Program for Formation of Strategic Research Infrastructure at Private Universities, Academic Year 25-2019.