Masayuki YAMASAKI Associate ProfessorAlumni
  • Period
    2nd(Term: from Apr. 2011 to Mar. 2016)
    グローバル型
  • Research Interests
    Structural Biology
  • Research Topic
    Kinetic Polymer Formation and their Toxicity Control on Protein Aggregation Diseases

Masayuki studied Food Science as an undergraduate,learning many fundamental theories and techniques, such as “Talks between food and humans” or “Protein X-ray crystallography.” Around the time he started working in the laboratory as a post-doc, he wondered what would constitute the most exciting research target in his life. Soon thereafter, he decided on research regarding the underlying structural basis for Protein Aggregation Diseases, and he moved to Cambridge University in the UK. He found that the formation of α1-antitrypsin polymers via “an intermolecular folding” is the structural basis of α1-antitrypsin deficiency, which is known to cause liver cirrhosis or emphysema. From here on, Masayuki will try to understand why these polymers can exert toxicity that leads to diseases, and he will also apply this new concept on protein aggregations to understand the structural basis for other Protein Aggregation Diseases, such as Prion’s.