Bio:
Ryota received a Ph.D. in Organic chemistry/Photocheistry from the University of Electro-Communications, Japan, in 1998. His Ph.D. research was mainly focused on elucidating the molecular mechanism of the Aequorea bioluminescence. From 1998 to 2000, He worked as a postdoc at Inoue Photochirogenesis Project, one of the foremost research projects in Japan Science and Technology Agency, working on asymmetric photoreactions in supercritical carbon dioxide. After that he had pursued his study in the fields of bioinorganic and asymmetric chemistry respectively at Seikei University (Japan, 2000-2005) and at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Japan, 2005–2006) working as a Research Associate. He became a faculty member of Toho University, Japan, in Apr 2006 as an assistant professor, and has been an associate professor since 2009.
Examples of Ryota’s research achievements include development of new fluorescent/chemiluminescent compounds, metal complexes of hydroxyazine-type heterocycles as chemotherapeutic agents for diabetes, artificial siderophores, and so on. Lately his research interest has been focused on bioorganic chemistry that involves synthesis of small organic molecules having potent biological activities such as inhibitory activity against proteins and understanding of those biological events based on the host-guest chemistry. He has visited to the Anslyn group (the University of Texas at Austin) for about one year to study molecular recognition chemistry to deepen his expertise in this particular field.
