Toshio Yanagida

Japanese biophysicist

Toshio Yanagida
柳田敏雄
Toshio Yanagida
Nationality	Japanese
Alma mater	Osaka University
Known for	Single molecule fluorescence microscopy
Awards	Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy (1998) Asahi Prize (1998)
Scientific career
Fields	Biophysics Single Molecule Biology
Institutions	Osaka University RIKEN
Doctoral advisor	Fumio Oosawa

Toshio Yanagida (柳田敏雄, Yanagida Toshio) (born 1946) is a Japanese biophysicist famous for his pioneer research in single molecule biology, and made important contributions to single molecule fluorescence microscopy.^[1]

Contribution

Yanagida has been leading the development of single molecule detection techniques to study molecular motors, enzyme reactions, protein dynamics, and cell signaling since he succeeded in the direct observation of motion of single F-actin filaments in the presence of myosin in 1984.^[2] His single molecule experiments designed to investigate how thermal fluctuations (noise) play a positive role in the unique operation of biological molecular machines allowing for flexible and adaptive biological systems including muscle and brain.^[3]

Biography

Yanagida was born in Hyogo, Japan, and received his doctorate in Engineering Science in 1976 from Osaka University. He was Professor of Bionics at the Faculty of Engineering Science, Osaka University from 1988 to 2010, and also Professor of Physiology at the Osaka University Medical School from 1996 to 2010, where he served as Dean from 2002 to 2004. After retiring from this position and becoming Professor Emeritus, he has been Specially Appointed Professor at the Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University and Director of RIKEN Quantitative Biology Center.^[3]

Honors and awards

For his outstanding contributions, Yanagida received numerous honors and awards including the 1998 Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy, the 1998 Asahi Prize,^[4] and also the 2011 US Genomic Award for Outstanding Investigator in the Field of Single Molecule.^[1] He was selected as a Person of Cultural Merit by the Government of Japan in 2013.

References

^ ^a ^b 2011 Society Awadees, Biophysical Society
^ Yanagida, T; Nakase, M; Nishiyama, K; Oosawa, F (1984). "Direct observation of motion of single F-actin filaments in the presence of myosin". Nature. 307 (5946): 58–60. Bibcode:1984Natur.307...58Y. doi:10.1038/307058a0. PMID 6537825. S2CID 4362315.
^ ^a ^b Professor Toshio Yanagida
^ Asahi Prize recipients