Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences
Tohoku University

Thanks to advances in science and technology, manufacturing technology has reached the molecular size scale of nanometers (one billionth of a meter). There are two main approaches in manufacturing: the "top-down" approach, in which the original material is processed into the desired product, and the "bottom-up" approach, in which the small material itself is assembled into desired products.

I would like to ask you; did someone assemble the cells in our body with materials of biomolecules? As you know, the answer is NO. Each of the biomolecules is self-assembled into the cells in a bottom-up manner, and the living cells exhibit various functions. Considering this achievement in nature, making things from the bottom up would be an effective method in the molecular size scale. Creating functional devices and systems like a living system using biomolecules will lead to the development of new technologies and also contribute to fundamental scientific aspects such as understanding of life.

In my research, I aim to create molecular devices or systems through a bottom-up approach using biomolecules (mainly DNA) as materials. In FRIS, I will create and control artificial organelles and develop tools for analyzing and utilizing membrane proteins. Besides, I will also construct artificial molecular systems (molecular robots) and propose methodologies for controlling the collective behavior of the molecular robots.