Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
Professor Hiroaki Suga of Department of Chemistry wins Japan Academy Prize
Hiroaki Ohguri, Professor, Department of Chemistry
We are pleased to announce that Professor Hiroaki Suga of Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, will receive the Japan Academy Prize.
Professor Hiroaki Suga
Professor Suga has created "cyclic special peptides" incorporating various non-proteinaceous amino acids and established an original drug discovery method to discover drug candidate molecules at an overwhelming speed. Of particular note is the invention of a reprogramming technology that allows the universal genetic code to be rewritten at will. Specifically, he developed "flexizyme (artificial ribozyme)," "cell-free translation and synthesis of cyclic special peptides," and "RaPID platform. The combination of these unique technologies has enabled the creation of a special peptide library with a vast number of variations (>1 trillion types), in which cyclic special peptides and template mRNAs are linked 1:1 in the translation synthesis from template mRNAs. From this library, a system has been developed to discover drug candidate molecules that bind strongly to target proteins at a speed that overturns the conventional wisdom of drug discovery research.
In the past, the discovery of useful "special peptides" from nature had to be done by chance. In contrast, Professor Suga's drug discovery platform uses genetic code reprogramming, translation synthesis, and directed evolutionary systems that can introduce a wide variety of non-proteinaceous amino acids to systematically search for the structure and sequence of special peptides. The innovative and versatile "cyclic specialty peptide" drug discovery platform has been a game changer for basic and applied research on the discovery of inhibitors/activators of disease-causing proteins and their mechanisms of action. Unlike conventional small molecule drugs and antibody drugs, he has created a new drug discovery modality of mid-molecule drugs (molecular weight of 500 to several thousand), and has initiated a new field of "specialty peptide drug discovery".
We would like to congratulate Professor Suga on his award and wish him continued success in his future endeavors.
Faculty of Science News May 2024