Understanding life phenomena in atomic resolution with photons and electrons as weapons

Chemical biology is a new science disclosing life phenomena in a wide range of biological fields from a viewpoint of chemistry. For example, you take aspirin. Your fever will go down. So, why does the fever go down? Only to know the conventional pharmacological mechanism (e.g. Aspirin inhibits cyclooxygenase, and then arachidonic acid ……. ) is completely insufficient in the standpoint of science, especially chemistry. If you want to understand the medicinal effects in “molecular level in the true sense”, you must know how molecules interact each other, then how the coordinates of the atoms change, and how the various chemical potentials of the molecules change. Talking life phenomena in the language of chemistry means deepening research to molecular level considered up to the three-dimensional coordinates of atoms. In our laboratory, we are studying to analyze interaction between biomolecules and artificial molecules by using methods in organic chemistry, molecular biology and physical chemistry. Furthermore, we explore the contact point between molecules and life, and aim to control and create life phenomena artificially.