Professor Kenichiro Itami
Department of Chemistry
Nagoya University, Japan
Toward molecular nanocarbon biology
Nanocarbons have revolutionized materials science, but due to the stereotype of “carbon = materials”, they have not been widely utilized in the biology and biotechnology fields. In this lecture, I will introduce our exciting new endeavor trying to develop game- changing molecules for nanocarbon-based chemical biology and explore a new field of molecular nanocarbon biology. The goal of this project is to create molecular nanocarbons (structurally well- defined nanocarbon molecules) that bring about bio-innovation by molecular design and characteristics of nanocarbons that are not found in conventional biofunctional molecules. Making full use of our world’s most advanced technology in the precision synthesis of molecular nanocarbons, we expect to create molecular nanocarbons that will have huge impact on drug (nucleic acid) delivery, therapeutics, diagnosis, imaging, and protein-protein interactions. We will also explore and establish the new field of insect nanocarbon biology where we use insects or bacteria as a tool for the synthesis of new nanocarbon molecules.
Kenichiro Itami
Kenichiro Itami studied chemistry at Kyoto University, Japan, and completed his PhD in 1998 with Prof. Yoshihiko Ito. After being Assistant Professor at Kyoto University, he moved to Nagoya University as an Associate Professor in 2005, where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2008. In 2012 he created the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) in Nagoya University, serving as the principal investigator (also the founding director until March 2022). During 2013-2020, he was the Research Director of JST-ERATO Itami Molecular Nanocarbon Project. Since 2019, he has also been the Research Fellow at the Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. The work of Ken Itami has centered on catalyst-enabling synthetic chemistry with broad directions including molecular nanocarbon materials, C-H activation catalysts, medicinal chemistry, and chemical biology. The representative achievement is the creation of a range of structurally uniform nanocarbons of fundamental and practical importance by bottom-up chemical synthesis. He is recognized as Highly Cited Researchers (Clarivate Analytics) 5 years in a row since 2017, with an h-index of 83.
331 Smith Hall