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Assistant Professor Ryo Tanifuji of Department of Chemistry wins 37th Inoue Research Encouragement Award
Hiroki Ohguri, Professor, Department of Chemistry
Assistant Professor Ryo TANIFUJI
Assistant Professor Ryo Tanifuji of the Department of Chemistry has received the 37th Inoue Research Encouragement Award. This award is given to young researchers who have submitted outstanding Doctoral dissertations in the past three years. The award was presented to Assistant Professor Tanifuji for his Doctoral dissertation entitled "Chemistry-Enzyme Hybrid Synthesis of Tetrahydroisoquinoline Alkaloids with DNA Alkylation Ability," which was written in the Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
The chemical synthesis of antitumor alkaloids with complex polycyclic skeletons is difficult, and existing methods require multi-step transformations. Dr. Tanifuji pioneered a chemical-enzymatic hybrid synthesis method that minimizes the isolation and purification of intermediates and allows the construction of a pentacyclic skeleton in only one day. He succeeded in the total synthesis of jornamycin A and saframycin A from organically synthesized simple substrates via a 4-5 pot transformation. Furthermore, we have created a middle molecule that expresses a nucleic acid alkylation ability superior to that of natural products. He was highly evaluated for his pioneering and originality in not only the systematic total synthesis of natural products but also the creation and functional evaluation of non-natural middle molecules, which led to a new development in the synthesis of higher-order structured biologically active molecules. Currently, Assistant Professor TANIFUJI, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Chemistry, is vigorously conducting research on the creation of biofunctional middle-molecular complexes by integrating chemical synthesis and enzymatic synthesis. We would like to congratulate Dr. Tanifuji for receiving this award and look forward to his continued success in the future.
(Published in the March 2021 issue of the Faculty of Science News)
In addition, Dr. Yiyang Zhan of RIKEN, who completed the doctoral course in the Department of Chemistry, received the Inoue Research Encouragement Award.
We would like to extend our congratulations to him.