Protein Biophysics Project
The ongoing research themes are as follows. For details, please click the links below.

Reconstructions of cellular and bio-molecular sensing mechanism (group leader: Hiroto TANAKA, Senior Researcher).
We are reconstructing biological mechanisms for receiving chemical substances.

Creating bio-molecular machines (group leader: Ken'ya FURUTA, Senior Researcher).
Focusing on the bio-molecular motors, we are studying the design and manufacturing of devices composed of new bio-molecular machines that possess the characteristics of living organisms.

Self organization mechanism of bio-molecular system (group leader: Kazuhiro OIWA, Distinguished Researcher).
We are working on the mechanisms of large scale self organization that is driven by biomolecular motors.
What's New / Works
- 03/11/2022 A new research article regarding engineered protein motors that move on a DNA track has been published online by Ryota Ibusuki (researcher), Ken'ya Furuta (senior researcher) and colleagues. Please refer to the Science web site. Click here for the related news article including a 30-second video clip on the AAAS website.
- 12/15/2021 Ken'ya Furuta, senior researcher gave a talk at "3rd Conference on Biomotors, Virus Assembly, and Nanobiotechnology Applications" (online).
- 11/5/2021 Hikaru Empuku joined the lab as a practical trainee from Nagaoka University of Technology.
- 11/3/2021 Ken'ya Furuta, senior researcher gave a keynote talk at the ArtMoMa Bionanotechnology & Biomolecular Machines Workshop held as a hybrid event at the University of Dresden, Germany and online.
- 6/18/2021 Ken'ya Furuta, senior researcher gave a talk at the workshop "Molecular Engines: From Biological Molecular Motors To Artificial Molecular Machines" in the 21st Annual Meeting of the Protein Science Society of Japan (online).
- 11/04/2020 Ken'ya Furuta, senior researcher gave a talk at Molecular Engine-Soft Robot Joint Symposium held online.
- 10/20/2020 Ken'ya Furuta, senior researcher gave a talk at 10th CSJ Chemistry Festa 2020 held online.
- 07/10/2020 A new review article related to the design and synthesis of artificial autonomous protein walkers has been published online by Ken'ya Furuta (senior researcher), Prof. Paul M. G. Curmi (Univ. of New South Wales, Australia), and Prof. Heiner Linke (Lund University, Sweden) et al. Please refer to Biophys Rev. DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s12551-020-00717-1.
- 04/07/2020 Ken'ya Furuta (senior researcher), Hiroaki Kojima (executive researcher), and Kazuhiro Oiwa (distinguished researcher) were awarded the Science and Technology Prize of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for "Research on novel molecular motors developed on the basis of protein motors' function".
Read more: https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/mext_00187.html

- 04/01/2020 Ryota IBUSUKI (Researcher), Amina YANO (Technical Expert) joined the lab.
Contact / Access
National Institute of Information and Communications Technology,
Advanced ICT Research Institute
588-2 Iwaoka, Iwaoka-cho, Nishi-ku, Kobe 651-2492, JAPAN
protein-biophys at ml.nict.go.jp
*Please change 'at' to '@' when you send an e-mail to us
Access to Advanced ICT Research Institute, please refer to the link below.