TOPICS

Keisuke Kawashima (M2), Department of Applied Chemistry, received Student Presentation Award at The 55th Annual Meeting of The Biophysical Society of Japan

 

On 20th Sep 2017, Mr. Keisuke Kawashima, Major MSc student, Department of Applied Chemistry, received Student Presentation Award at The 55th Annual Meeting of The Biophysical Society of Japan.

 

 

<About awarded research>

In photosynthesis, the conversion of light energy into electrochemical energy is occurred at type II photosynthetic reaction centers (RC), including bacterial reaction centers (bRC) and photosystem II (PSII). In both RCs, redox active cofactors are arranged along the pseudo-C2 axis, which apparently show two electron transfer pathways, A- and B-branches. However, only A-branch is electron-transfer active.

Solving the Poisson-Boltzmann equation based on the crystal structures, we calculated the redox potential values of the cofactors in both RCs. Our results show that uni-directional electron transfers occur in both RCs but in different mechanism, which were highly associated with the ability/inability in splitting water molecules.

 

<Comments>

It is a great honor to receive the award. I would like to thank professor Ishikita and members of Ishikita lab for discussion and support. I will keep on working harder to contribute to the understanding of the mechanism of photosynthesis.