RIKEN SPring-8 Center Life Science Research Infrastructure Group
Group Director: Masaki Yamamoto (Ph.D.)
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.
Takizawa, N., Ogura, Y., Fujita, Y., Noda, T., Shigematsu, H., Hayashi, T., Kurokawa, K.:
"Local structural changes of the influenza A virus ribonucleoprotein complex by single mutations in the specific residues involved in efficient genome packaging"
Virology 531, 126-140, (2019) - 2.
Hanawa-Suetsugu, K., Itoh, Y., Ab Fatah, M., Nishimura, T., Takemura, K., Takeshita, K., Kubota, S., Miyazaki, N., Wan Mohamad Noor, WNI., Inaba, T., Nguyen, NTH., Hamada-Nakahara, S., Oono-Yakura, K., Tachikawa, M., Iwasaki, K., Kohda, D., Yamamoto, M., Kitao, A., Shimada, A. and Suetsugu, S.:
"Phagocytosis is mediated by two-dimensional assemblies of the F-BAR protein GAS7"
Nature Communications10, 4763 (2019) - 3.
Shigematsu, H., Imasaki, T., Doki, C., Sumi, T., Aoki, M., Uchikubo-Kamo, T., Sakamoto, A., Tokuraku, K., Shirouzu, M. and Nitta, R.:
"Structural insight into microtubule stabilization and kinesin inhibition by Tau family MAPs"
Journal of Cell Biology 217 (12), 4155-4163 (2018) - 4.
Yamamoto, M., Hirata, K., Yamashita, K., Hasegawa, K., Ueno, G., Ago, H., and Kumasaka, T.:
"Protein microcrystallography using synchrotron radiation"
IUCrJ 4 (5), 529-539 (2017) - 5.
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) - 6.
Matsumoto, S., Miyano, N., Baba, S., Liao, J., Kawamura, T., Tsuda, C., Takeda A,, Yamamoto, M., Kumasaka, T., Kataoka, T. and Shima, F.:
"Molecular Mechanism for Conformational Dynamics of Ras・GTP Elucidated from In-Situ Structural Transition in Crystal"
Scientific Report 6, 25931 (2016) - 7.
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) - 8.
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) - 9.
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) - 10.
Smith, JL., Fischetti RF. and Yamamoto, M.:
"Micro-crystallography comes of age"
Current Opinion in Structural Biology 22, 602-612 (2012)
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Masaki Yamamoto
- Group Director
Core members
- Hideki Shigematsu
- Research Scientist
- Naoki Sakai
- Research Scientist
- Kohei Takeshita
- Research Scientist
- Hiroaki Matsuura
- Postdoctoral Researcher
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.)