We are developing and improving the structural biology research environment
using the high-brilliance synchrotron radiation at SPring-8.

Research Project Division (Life Science and Drug Discovery Group)

This group was organized in the JASRI Research Project Division in April 2022 to promote activities such as the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) project “Life Science and Drug Discovery Research Support Infrastructure Project (BINDS)”. The BINDS project aims at an expansion of the research support base corresponding to the sophistication of various technologies related to drug development, that is, we have establish and develop research infrastructures to promote basic research that contributes not only to drug discovery research but also to the development of life science widely, and support research by external researchers. We have set the theme of “support and development of integrative structure analysis centered on SPring-8”, and one of the programs of the BINDS project, and are participating in “support by integrative structure analysis of proteins using large-scale structural analysis facilities” with its representative organization, RIKEN. As the parts of the program, we are contributing to high-resolution structural analysis by X-ray crystal analysis method, analysis of supermolecular complex by cryo-electron microscopy, time-resolved structure analysis using XFEL, etc. Furthermore, we aim to contribute to elucidation of complex biological phenomena related to proteins and drug discovery research (SBDD) based on structural information by providing support using them.

Our activities

In addition to the JASRI Structural Biology Division, we are closely collaborating with RIKEN and Tohoku University to carry out the following activities:

  1. Support for structural analysis using the public macromolecular crystallography beamlines, BL41XU and BL45XU. Development of automation of structural analysis and sophistication of time-resolved structural analysis.
  2. Structural analysis support using the public cryo-TEMs, EM01CT and EM02CT. Development of remote measurement and automatic measurement.
  3. Support for solution structure analysis in the BioSAXS beamline, BL38B1.
  4. Support for time-resolved structure analysis in SACLA.

Member

Name e-mail*PHS
Takashi KUMASAKAGroup Leader (concurrent)kumasaka3475
Kazuya HASEGAWAScientist (concurrent)kazuya3595
Hideki SHIGEMATSUScientist (concurrent)shigematsu7868
Naoki SAKAIScientist (concurrent)nsakai3838
Hiroshi SEKIGUCHIScientist (concurrent)sekiguchi3110
Hiroyasu MASUNAGAScientist (concurrent)masunaga3935
Satoshi NagaoScientist (concurrent)s-nagao3560
Fumie OGURATechnician (concurrent)fumie7846
Marcel BOKHOVEScientistmbokhove3528
Nipawan NUEMKETScientistnipawan3831
Luo FANGJIAScientistluo.fangjia3644
Emi HORISAKAStaffemi.horisaka3408
Tomoko ISHIHARAStafftomoko.ishihara3919
Shuku SAJIStaffsyuku.saji9704
Sachiko YAMAMOTOStaffsachiko.yamamoto3623
Chisato HIGUCHIStaffhiguchi-c9695
Kiriko HATAGUCHIStaffkiriko.hataguchi3336
Yoshihiro TANAKAStaffyoshihiro.tanaka3624

*followed by @spring8.or.jp
Please see here for the Structural Biology Division.