Professor Michihiro Suga of the Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (RIIS) served as a moderator at the 14th HOPE Meeting of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), held February 27 - March 3. The HOPE Meeting is an opportunity for outstanding graduate students selected from Asia, the Pacific, Africa, and other regions to interact with Nobel laureates and others who have pioneered the frontiers of global knowledge, to exchange with their peers, and to learn about the humanities and social sciences through lectures and artistic programs. Dr. Suga moderated the 14th HOPE Meeting with Dr. Johan Deisenhofer. Dr. Diesenhofer, together with Dr. Huber and Dr. Michiel, was...

Professor Michihiro Suga was awarded "The Robin Hill Award" from the International Society for Photosynthesis on August 3. Photosynthesis is a reaction in which plants and algae use the energy of light to extract oxygen from water and convert carbon dioxide into sugars. Robin Hill discovered in the 1930s that oxygen from water in photosynthesis requires electron acceptors such as iron ions (the Hill reaction). The Robin Hill Award of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research was established to honor his contributions to photosynthesis research. The award is presented at the international congress on photosynthesis research of the International Society of Photosynthesis Research to a young scientist who has produced...

Professor Jian-Ren Shen of RIIS attended the Gregori Aminoff Prize Ceremony of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences held at the City Hall in Stockholm on June 13, and received a certificate and medal from the King of Sweden. Prof. Shen was also invited to a dinner banquet attended by the King, and on June 14, the following day, he gave a lecture at the Royal Academy of Sciences on the water-decomposition reaction mechanism of photosynthesis. Professor Shen was awarded the prize in 2020 jointly with Professor Douglas Rees (California Institute of Technology) for "fundamental contributions to the elucidation of the function of redox metal clusters in biology". The ceremony...

The long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) of the strength of hippocampal excitatory synapse involved in learning and memory formation in brain have been separately explained, but the molecular mechanism that comprehensively explains them has not been elucidated. Associate Professor Dr. Tomonari Sumi, Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science, and Assistant Professor Dr. Kouji Harada, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology focused on the competition of exocytosis and endocytosis of AMPA-type glutamate receptors dependent on the number of calcium ions that flow into the postsynapse of hippocampal excitatory neurons, and demonstrated the comprehensive understanding of the LTP and LTD by a large-scale mathematical model simulation. Figure...

Many active processes in cells are based on the function of molecular motors, which convert chemical (free) energy into work. These molecular motors provide realizations of nanometer-scaled thermodynamic machines and can thereby act as test cases for the recently developed stochastic thermodynamics that applies to such small isothermal systems. The paradigmatic system of this type is a molecular motor working against an external load force or torque, while provided with a given concentration of its fuel (such as ATP). Key questions for understanding the energetics of these motors are the efficiency and reversibility of that energy conversion. In this context, the rotary motor F1-ATPase has played an important role due...