Research
1. Synthesis and self-aggregation of chlorophyll derivatives that mimic photosynthetic apparatuses
Chlorophyll molecules are well organized for efficient energy or electron transfer in a light-harvesting antenna or a reaction center of photosynthetic organisms. In order to make effective photosynthetic mimics, we prepare self-aggregates of synthetic analogues of chlorophyllous pigments. Our artificial chlorophyllous supramolecules well mimic the natural light-harvesting systems, in which efficient energy transfer occurs. In addition, we successfully prepared water-soluble light-harvesting antenna and chlorophyllous supramolecular gels.
Self-aggregate of Synthetic Chlorophyllous Pigments
Water-soluble Chlorophyllous Aggregate
Chlorophyllous Supramolecular Gel
2. Cell-penetrative materials and application for optical enzyme assay
Cationic polymers such as polyarginine (pR) and polyallylamine can cross a lipid bilayer of a liposome when they are bound to amphiphilic anions. The cell-penetrative materials can act as anion carriers, and their translocation activities can be monitored by fluorogenic release of carboxyfluorescein (CF) from LUVsCF (large unilamellar vesicles loaded with CF). We apply the finding to optical transduction of enzyme reactions and molecular sensing. We successfully introduced the optical transducer to universal enzyme reaction assay and to optical sensing of flavors (sucrose, glutamate, etc.) and other biomaterials (lipids, etc).
Cell-penetratiion of Cationic Polymer
Optical Sucrose Sensing in Soft Drinks
