Research
Glutathione Peroxidase - Selenocysteine - Protein Folding - Force Field Development
After completion of the human genome project, people are now elaborating to mapping genes of all proteins. It used to be considered that the proteins are made of only 20 sorts of amino acids. However, a new amino acid has been discovered recently as the 21st proteinogenic amino acid. That is selenocysteine, a unique amino acid containing selenium and existing in various antioxidant enzymes. The target of our laboratory is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of antioxidant functions of selenium and developing model reaction systems of selenoenzymes. We are also studying on "the principle that a three-dimensional protein structure voluntarily forms" and "the mechanism that the protein structure is stabilized by the interplay of atomic interactions" by using organic chemistry techniques, such as synthesis, calculation, and thermodynamic and kinetic analyses.
Synthesis of Selenoamino Acids & Peptides
Experiments of Protein Folding
