An international collaborative study with Dr. Valérie Panneels and Professor Gebhard Schertler of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI)--the largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences in Switzerland--has been published in Journal of Molecular Biology, a Q1 journal in the fields of biophysics and structural biology.

Dr. Panneels and Prof. Schertler visited the Nagoya Institute of Technology in 2023, during which Dr. Panneels delivered a Special Lecture as part of the NFRI (NITech Frontier Research Institutes) Special Seminar Series, titled "No. 85. The first step of vision: time-resolved structures of ultrafast mammalian rhodopsin catched with an XFEL."

In the same year, Dr. Panneels and Prof. Schertler reported in Nature their groundbreaking study that captured, in real time, the photoisomerization of retinal in rhodopsin--the very first event in vision. As their next research objective, they initiated a collaborative project employing infrared spectroscopy to elucidate the structural changes associated with the activation process essential for downstream signal transduction.

This highly demanding experiment required manipulation of rhodopsin crystals in near-darkness under dim red light to avoid unintended photoactivation. Nevertheless, it was successfully carried out by Mr. Yosuke Mizuno, a doctoral student in the Katayama Laboratory at our institute. Consequently, the study demonstrated that rhodopsin in crystal form can proceed to the formation of Meta IIa, an active intermediate immediately preceding signal transduction.

The publication lists Mr. Yosuke Mizuno and Dr. Valérie Panneels as co-first authors, with Associate Professors Kota Katayama and Yuji Furutani serving as co-corresponding authors.

Reference

Related Links

• KATAYAMA Lab Website
• FURUTANI Lab Website