RIKEN SPring-8 Center Life Science Research Infrastructure Group

Group Director: Masaki Yamamoto (Ph.D.)

Japanese Page

Research Summary

Macromolecular crystallography (MX) of difficult target such as membrane proteins has been successfully achieved by using bright light source of SPring-8. To emphasize the application of structural analysis such as better understanding of life and drug discovery, our group advance the research facilities (SPring-8 and SACLA) for MX or small angle X-ray scattering (Bio-SAXS). Moreover, we facilitate the use of electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) to expect synergy on structural biology activity in addition to those techniques using X-ray. Our group tackle with new structural life science for complex structure-function analysis by combining such state-of-the-art analytical techniques.

Main Research Fields

Biology

Related Research Fields

Chemistry
Engineering
Biological Sciences
Agricultural Sciences
Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmacy
Structural biochemistry
Biophysics
Drug development chemistry

Keywords

Structural life Science
Structural Biology
Correlative Structural Analysis
Drug Discovery
Structural Dynamics

Selected Publications

1.Hideki Shigematsu, Tsuyoshi Imasaki, Chihiro Doki, Takuya Sumi, Mari Aoki, Tomomi Uchikubo-Kamo, Ayako Sakamoto, Kiyotaka Tokuraku, Mikako Shirouzu, and Ryo Nitta.:
“Structural insight into microtubule stabilization and kinesin inhibition by Tau family MAPs”
Journal of Cell Biology 217 (12), 4155?4163 (2018)
2.Masaki Yamamoto, Kunio Hirata, Keitaro Yamashita, Kazuya Hasegawa, Go Ueno, Hideo Ago, Takashi Kumasaka.:
“Protein microcrystallography using synchrotron radiation”
IUCrJ 4 (5), 529-539 (2017)
3.M Suga, F Akita, M Sugahara, M Kubo, Y Nakajima, T Nakane, K Yamashita, Y Umena, M Nakabayashi, T Yamane, T Nakano, M Suzuk, T Masuda, S Inoue, T Kimura, T Nomura, S Yonekura, L-J Yu, T Sakamoto, T Motomura, J-H Chen, Y Kato1, T Noguchi, K Tono, Y Joti, T Kameshima, T Hatsui, E Nango, R Tanaka, H Naitow, Y Matsuura, A Yamashita, M Yamamoto, O Nureki, M Yabashi, T Ishikawa, S Iwata, J-R Shen.:
“Light-induced structural changes and the site of O=O bond formation in PSII
caught by XFEL”
Nature 543(7643):131-135 (2017)
4.Shigeyuki Matsumoto, Nao Miyano, Seiki Baba, Jingling Liao, Takashi Kawamura, Chiemi Tsuda, AzusaTakeda A, Masaki Yamamoto, Takashi Kumasaka, Toru Kataoka, Fumi Shima.:
“Molecular Mechanism for Conformational Dynamics of Ras?GTP Elucidated from In-Situ Structural Transition in Crystal”
Scientific Report 6, 25931 (2016)
5.Deng, D, Sun, PC, Yan, CY, Ke, M, Jiang, X, Xiong, L, Ren, WL, Hirata, K, Yamamoto, M, Fan, SL and Yan, N.:
“Molecular basis of ligand recognition and transport by glucose transporters”
Nature 526 (7573), 391-396.(2015)
6.Tanabe, H, Fujii, Y, Okada-Iwabu, M, Iwabu, M, Nakamura, Y, Hosaka, T, Motoyama, K, Ikeda, M, Wakiyama, M, Terada, T, Ohsawa, N, Hato, M, Ogasawara, S, Hino, T, Murata, T, Iwata, S, Hirata, K, Kawano, Y, Yamamoto, M, Kimura-Someya, T, Shirouzu, M, Yamauchi, T, Kadowaki, T, and Yokoyama,S.:
“Crystal structures of the human adiponectin receptors”
Nature 520 (7547), 312-316 (2015)
7.Shima, F, Yoshikawa, Y., Ye, M., Araki, M, Matsumoto, S., Liao, JL., Hu, LZ., Sugimoto, T ., Ijiri, Y., Takeda, A., Nishiyama, Y., Sato, C., Muraoka, S.,Tamura, A., Osoda, T., Tsuda, K., Miyakawa, T., Fukunishi, H., Shimada, J., Kumasaka, T., Yamamoto, M., Kataoka, T.:
“In silico discovery of small-molecule Ras inhibitors that display antitumor activity by blocking the Ras-effector interaction”
Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci the USA 110, 8182-8187 (2013)
8.Janet L Smith, Robert F Fischetti and Masaki Yamamoto.:
“Micro-crystallography comes of age”
Current Opinion in Structural Biology 22, 602?612 (2012)

Lab Members

Principal investigator

Masaki Yamamoto: Group Director

Contact Information

Structural Biology Facility,
1-1-1 Kouto, Sayo-cho,
Sayo-gun, Hyogo,
679-5148 Japan
Tel: +81-(0)791-58-2839
Fax: +81-(0)791-58-2834
Email: yamamoto [at] riken.jp

Organization

SR Life Science Instrumentation Team: Masaki Yamamoto (Ph.D.)