RIKEN Baton Zone Program Advanced Electron Microscope Development Unit
Unit Leader: Koji Yonekura (Ph.D.)
Research Summary

We address R & D of the advanced cryo-electron microscopy through combining the knowledge of JEOL on the electron microscope with the elemental technologies fostered by operation and development of SPring-8/SACLA.
Main Research Fields
- Biological Sciences
Related Research Fields
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Advanced cryo-electron microscopy
- High-resolution single particle cryo-EM
- Electron 3D crystallography (3D ED / microED)
Selected Publications
- 1.
Inoue S., Nikaido K., Higashino T., Arai S., Tanaka M., Kumai R., Tsuzuki S., Horiuchi S., Sugiyama H., Segawa Y., Takaba K., Maki-Yonekura S., Yonekura K., Hasegawa T.:
"Emerging disordered layered-herringbone phase in organic semiconductors unveiled by electron crystallography"
Chem. Mater. 34, 72–83 (2022) - 2.
Yonekura K., Maki-Yonekura S., Naitow H., Hamaguchi T., Takaba K.:
"Machine learning-based real-time object locator / evaluator for cryo-EM data collection"
Commun. Biol. 4, 1044 (2021) - 3.
Hamaguchi T., Kawakami K., Shinzawa-Itoh K., Inoue-Kashino N., Itoh S., Ifuku K., Yamashita E., Maeda K., Yonekura K., Kashino Y.:
"Structure of the far-red light utilizing photosystem I of Acaryochloris"
Nat. Commun. 12, 2333 (2021). - 4.
Kato K., Takaba K., Maki-Yonekura S., Mitoma N., Nakanishi Y., Nishihara T., Hatakeyama T., Kawada T., Hijikata Y., Pirillo J., Scott L.T., Yonekura K., Segawa Y., Itami K.:
"Double-helix supramolecular nanofibers assembled from negatively curved nanographenes."
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 5465–5469 (2021). - 5.
Kato K., Miyazaki N., Hamaguchi T., Nakajima Y., Akita F., Yonekura K., Shen J.-R.:
"High-resolution cryo-EM structure of photosystem II: Effects of electron beam damage."
Commun. Biol. 4, 382 (2021). - 6.
Maki-Yonekura S., Hamaguchi T., Naitow H., Takaba K., Yonekura K.:
"Advances in cryo-EM and ED with a cold-field emission beam and energy filtration: - refinements of the CRYO ARM 300 system in RIKEN SPring-8 Center –."
Microscopy 70, 232–240 (2021) - 7.
Takaba K., Maki-Yonekura S., Inoue S., Hasegawa T., Yonekura K.:
"Protein and organic-molecular crystallography with 300kV electrons on a direct electron detector"
Front. Mol. Biosci. 7, 612226 (2021) - 8.
Naitow, H., Hamaguchi, T., Maki-Yonekura, S., Isogai, M., Yoshikawa, N. and Yonekura, K.:
"Apple latent spherical virus structure with stable capsid frame supports quasi-stable protrusions expediting genome release"
Commun. Biol. 3: 488 (2020). - 9.
Hamaguchi T., Maki-Yonekura S., Naitow H., Matsuura Y., Ishikawa T. and Yonekura K.:
"A new cryo-EM system for single particle analysis"
J. Structl. Biol. 207: 40-48 (2019). - 10.
Yonekura K., Ishikawa T. and Maki-Yonekura S.:
"A new cryo-EM system for electron 3D crystallography"
J. Structl. Biol. 206: 243-253 (2019).
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Koji Yonekura
- Unit Leader
Contact Information
1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo-cho Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5148 Japan
Email: yone [at] spring8.or.jp