Field of Research: Glycobiology including biological chemistry, molecular biology, and biotechnology of glycan chains.

Research Interests: Living organisms on earth are surrounded by glycan chains without exception. My final goal is to give a unique answer to the simplest question why the glycan chains exist on the surface of living organisms. The cell surface glycan chains have structures of a monster of complexity and are involved in various processes like cell-cell interactions and signal transductions in complex biological systems, such as fertilization, early development, organogenesis (nerve cell, blood cell, adipose cell, and mammary gland, etc.), immunity, and neural functions. In order to understand molecular mechanisms for functions of glycan chains in any of those complex biological systems, four lines of studies are currently underway in my laboratory: (1) to reveal mechanisms for glycosignaling through membrane microdomains (rafts) on the cell surface; (2) to demonstrate significance of glycan chains in fertilization, early development, immunity, and neural functions; (3) to understand biosynthetic mechanism of glycan chains, especially sialic acid residues; (4) to utilize functional glycan chains for medical, technological and agricultural applications.