Introduction of Toma Kashima's research
Field of interest: enzymology, structural biology, glycoscience
Nature is full of unique organisms. Behind the questions "Why do these organisms have these characteristics?" or "Why do these life phenomena occur?", the genes of the organisms and the activity of their gene products, proteins, and especially enzymes, are often implicated (for more details about enzymes, see "Research" in the Enzymology Laboratory). However, in many cases, a single biological phenomenon is not accomplished by a single enzyme. Kashima focuses on novel enzymes and the proteins that work together with those enzymes, and is engaged in the following research projects.
①How an enzyme "works" and what kind of chemical reaction does it catalyze (Enzyme functional analysis)
②What "form" a single enzyme takes and how it catalyzes chemical reactions (Enzyme structural and molecular functional analysis)
③How multiple enzymes and proteins “cooperate” to accomplish a biological phenomenon (Enzyme group analysis)
Links: X (mainly in Japanese), Research Gate, ORCiD
Recent major research results (The actual content is very diverse. I especially want students to make the research theme I give them their own "thing". Therefore, the research theme I give can be completely different from those mentioned below. Please contact me directly for details.）
1. Study of a group of enzymes that degrade D-arabinan glycans in the cell walls of Mycobacteria and other acid-fast bacteria (Shimokawa M., Ishiwata A., Kashima T., et al., Nature Communications, 2023)
2. Degradation system of intestinal mucin-glycans in Bifidobacterium bifidum (Katoh, T., et al., Nature Chemical Biology, 2023)
3. Research on a group of enzymes that break down oligosaccharides in caramel from Bifidobacterium bifidum (Kashima T., Okumura K., Ishiwata A., et al., Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2021、Editor’s Pick)
