DATE2022.03.02 #Awards & Prizes

Professor Sotaro Uemura wins the 2021 Nakatani Encouragement Award

Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.

Professor Sotaro Uemura, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Biological Sciences, has received the Nakatani Encouragement Award from the Nakatani Foundation for Biomedical Instrumentation Technology for his original research on medical instrumentation technology.

Professor Uemura has been conducting internationally pioneering research in the field of biomolecular function research using single molecule measurement methods. His representative achievements include the application of the Zero-Mode Waveguides (ZMW) method, which enables visualization at the single molecule level, to real-time visualization of the protein translation process at high concentrations that cannot be measured by total reflection illumination due to background light, and the clarification of the binding mode of tRNA to the ribosome. The ZMW method has also revealed the existence of multiple formation pathways in the initial complex formation of protein translation.

Until now, the ZMW method has contributed significantly as one of the next-generation sequencing technologies, but its use has been limited to DNA sequence decoding. Professor Uemura's unique application of these technologies to achieve single-molecule visualization of protein translation reactions was highly acclaimed.

In addition, he has recently developed a method to identify DNA barcode molecules on a molecule-by-molecule basis and to obtain information on their spatial distribution. This achievement makes it possible to obtain information on gene distribution in cells comprehensively and with single-molecule spatial resolution.

We would like to congratulate Professor Uemura on this prestigious award and wish him continued success in his future endeavors.

Professor Uemura and Executive Vice President Ietsugu of the Foundation at the award ceremony

Nakatani Prize
https://www.nakatani-foundation.jp/business/nakatani_award/


(Responsibility: Professor Takeo Kubo, Department of Biological Sciences)