Laboratories & Administration Office

Laboratory of Supramolecular Crystallography

member

Director Atsushi NAKAGAWA
Tomitake TSUKIHARA(Guest Professor)
Associate Professor Mamoru SUZUKI
Instructor Eiki YAMASHITA
Mayumi AMANO
Technical Assistant Kenichi SAKAGUCHI

Correspondence

Tel 81-6-6879-8635
Fax 81-6-6879-4313
E-mail
URL http://www.protein.osaka-u.ac.jp/rcsfp/supracryst/en/index.html

Research

There exist various biological macromolecular assemblies consisting of proteins, nucleic acids, sugars, lipids, and other substances in living cells. These macromolecular assemblies play key roles in all living system. Our laboratory works on structure determination of biological macromolecular assemblies, as well as proteins, which play important roles in biological system, using X-ray crystallography. Development of tools for X-ray crystal structure determination of biological macromolecular assemblies is also one of our main works, including development and management of the beamline for macromolecular assemblies at SPring-8.
We are also collaborating with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on the development of sub-angstrom structural biology.


<Fig.1>
Diffraction data collection system installed at the beamline for
macromolecular assemblies at SPring-8.


<Fig.2>
Atomic model of a virus-like particle from a hyperthermophilic Archaeon, Pyrococcus furiosus.

Current Research Programs

1) X-ray structure determination of macromolecular assemblies and proteins
2) Development and management of the SR beamline for macromolecular assemblies at SPring-8
3) Development of sub-angstrom structural biology

References

1. The Crystal Structure of a Virus-like Particle from the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus Provides Insight into the Evolution of Viruses. Akita, F. et al. (2007) J. Mol. Biol., 368, 1469-1483.
2. The atomic structure of Rice dwarf virus reveals the self-assembly mechanism of component proteins. Nakagawa, A. et al. (2003) Structure 11, 1227-1238.

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