I am Jr. PI at the WPI Human Biology-Microbiome-Quantum Research Centre (Bio2Q) and Project Associate Professor at Keio University. I have been working for over 12 years in mechanistic research of fundamental biological problems, mostly on membrane transport processes. I combine X-ray crystallography and single particle cryogenic electron microscopy with microbiological and biochemical assays to understand how membrane transport complexes work in bacteria. I am particularly interested in Bacteroidota, the most abundant phylum of bacteria found in the human gut. I study how these anaerobic bacteria acquire nutrients, such as dietary fibre and iron.
I read Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and did my undergraduate research project with Prof Sir Tom Blundell, where I got a taste of practical structural biology. I fell in love with membrane proteins during my MSci project with Dr Ingo Greger at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK), while isolating AMPA-type ionotropic glutamate receptors in complex with auxiliary subunits. I went to Oxford to pursue a Wellcome Trust-funded DPhil (PhD) in Structural Biology with Prof Ben Berks and Prof Susan Lea, where I investigated a DNA-transporting membrane protein required for natural transformation in bacteria. I then moved to Newcastle for a postdoc with Prof Bert van den Berg to study the structure and function of outer membrane nutrient transporters in gut bacteria. I did a second postdoc at Newcastle with Prof Tracy Palmer and Dr Elisabeth Lowe on bacterial cell envelope structure biogenesis. I started my group at Bio2Q in Tokyo in November 2026.
