Invited Speakers
Toshio ANDO (Kanazawa University)
“A Stepping Myosin” under an ultra-fast AFM
| Title: | High-speed Atomic Force Microscopy for Observing Protein Molecules in Dynamic Action |  |
| Author: | Toshio Ando | |
| Affiliation: | Department of Physics, Kanazawa University, Japan | |
| Email: | ||
| URL: | ||
| Abstract: |  “A Stepping Myosin” under an ultra-fast AFM (Real speed; taken at 10 fps) More images in Prof. Ando’s HP |
|
| Directly observing protein molecules in dynamic action at high spatiotemporal resolution has long been a holy grail for biological science. To materialize this long quested dream, I have been developing high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) since 1993. Tremendous strides have recently been accomplished in its high-speed and low-invasive performances. Consequently, various dynamic molecular actions, including bipedal walking of myosin V and rotary propagation of structural changes in F1-ATPase, have successfully been captured on video. The visualized dynamic images not only provided irrefutable evidence for speculated actions of the protein molecules but also brought new discoveries inaccessible with other approaches, thus giving great insights into how the molecules function. HS-AFM is now transforming “static” structural biology into dynamic structural bioscience. | ||
| Biographical Sketch: | Prof. Toshio ANDO is currently studying at the Department of Physics of Kanazawa University. After receiving his Dc. Sci. degree in physics from Waseda University, he worked at the Cardiovascular Research Institute of UC San Francisco as a postdoctoral fellow and then an assistant research biophysicist from 1980 to 1986. Then, he returned to Japan to establish a biophysics laboratory at Kanazawa University. Prof. Ando has been studying the molecular mechanism of proteins, especially of myosin motors, while developing new tools. In 1993, he embarked on the development of high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM) and finally materialized this new technique in 2008. Currently, his research focuses on the nano-visualization of protein molecules in dynamic action as well as on the development of the second generation of HS-AFM techniques. For his creation of HS-AFM and new structural biology, he has been awarded a number of awards including the UPENN NBIC Award for Research Excellence in Nanotechnology, Yamazaki-Tei’ichi Prize and Shimadzu Prize. | |