AMMATHNADU SUDHAKAR AmruthaAssistant Professor
- Laboratory
- Laboratory of Smart Molecule
- Research Theme
- Synthesis of Molecular Machines Powered by Light
- Research Keywords
Photochromic compounds, molecular machines, motor proteins, microtubules, kinesin, azobenzene, liquid crystals, self-assembly, intermolecular interactions, synthetic organic chemistry
Overview of Research
Although living things consist of molecules as non-living things do, we smartly sense and judge surroundings and do the action by ourselves. It is still important topic in the present science to envisage what is special and what is not special in the molecular level for the outwardly special living things in comparison with non-living things. We think that constructing new artificial molecular systems with various information functions which are realized in the living systems will contribute to the deep understanding of the living things. This is the opposite way of the usual biology where we observe living things itself directly.
In the living things, information is stored in the molecular structures or conformation of the molecular organizations. And the information is transferred among molecules via molecular interaction. On the other hand, light is a very important media for both information and energy not only in the living things and also in the daily life. Paying special attention to the above points, we design new photo-reactive molecular systems showing well-regulated molecular structural changes and study the following changes in the inter-molecular interaction, in order to actualize new photo-sensor molecular systems and light-driven molecular machines as preliminary examples of the artificial smart molecular systems.
Charge
- School of Science:
Biological Science course (Macromolecular Functions), Collaborative Laboratories - Graduate School of Life Science:
Division of Life Science, Transdisciplinary Life Science Course, Biomaterials Science
Message
It is fascinating to study the naturally evolved bionanomachines by synthesizing biologically active light-responsive molecules.
Representative Publications
1) Structure-Property Relationships of Photoresponsive Inhibitors of Kinesin Motor, A. S. Amrutha, K. R. Sunil Kumar, K. Matsuo, N. Tamaoki, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2016, 14, 7202-7210
2) Spatiotemporal Control of Kinesin Motor Proteins by Photoswitches Enabling Selective Single Microtubule Manipulations, K. R. Sunil Kumar, A. S. Amrutha, N. Tamaoki, Lab Chip, 2016, 16, 4702-4709
3) Targeted Activation of Molecular Transportation by Visible Light, A. S. Amrutha, K. R. Sunil Kumar, T. Kikukawa, N. Tamaoki, ACS Nano, 2017, 11, 12292-12301
4) Light-Driven Phase Transitions in Liquid Crystals and Their Applications, A. S. Amrutha, A. S. Achalkumar, Q. Li, in Photoactive Functional Soft Materials, Wiley VCH, Weinheim, 2018, ISBN 978-3-527-34482-6
5) Azobenzene-based Photoswitches Facilitating Reversible Regulation of Kinesin and Myosin Motor Systems for Nanotechnological Applications, A. S. Amrutha, K. R. Sunil Kumar, N. Tamaoki, ChemPhotoChem, 2019, 3, 337-346
Note
<Office Hour>
– Time: Anytime during the lecture period
– Place: Creative Research Institute Building, #04-108
Please contact in advance by E-mail.
E-mail: amrutha[at]es.hokudai.ac.jp