Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.

Professor Hiroaki Suga won the 2nd Kobe Prize Grand Award

Tatsuya Tsukuda, Professor, Head of Department of Chemistry

Professor Hiroaki Suga

Professor Hiroaki Suga of the Department of Chemistry has been selected as the second recipient of the Kobe Prize, established by the Nakatani Foundation to commemorate its 40th anniversary. The award is given to researchers who are conducting original research in the boundary area that integrates life science and science and engineering, and Professor Suga's work on "Pioneering and Innovating Special Peptide Drug Discovery" was highly evaluated. As you are probably aware, Professor Suga has been involved in a wide range of activities, from basic research to applied research and innovation for social application.

Professor Suga has developed the "RaPID platform" technology, which makes full use of highly original "flexizymes (artificial ribozymes)," and has succeeded in the translation and synthesis of "special cyclic peptides" incorporating a variety of nonprotein amino acids from template mRNA. This series of technological developments was made possible by fundamental research aimed at freely rewriting the genetic code that is universal to all living organisms. Furthermore, this technology has made it possible to search for drugs that bind strongly to disease-causing target proteins with high probability and speed, pioneering the field of "special peptide drug discovery," known as mid-molecular drugs.

This technology has accelerated basic and applied research into the discovery and mechanism of action of various protein inhibitors and activators, and because of its unprecedented versatility, it is now widely used in drug discovery activities in the pharmaceutical industry in Japan and abroad. Professor Suga was also awarded the Wolf Prize in 2023 and the Japan Academy Prize in 2024.