Division of Application Development
Physical Sciences
This field clarifies the physicochemical properties of crystallized rare sugars by various molecular structure analyses and physicochemical analyses, and promotes fundamental researches for development of rare sugar uses in the industrial context.
Tomohiko Ishii, Genta Sakane, Akihide Yoshihara, Kazuhiro Fukada and Tatsuya Senoo. 2015. Crystal structure of β-D,L-psicose.
Acta Cryst. E71: o289–o290
Researchers
| Fukada, Kazuhiro Professor | Ishii, Tomohiko Professor |
| Takao, Hidekuni Director of Micro-Nano Structure Device Integrated Research Center & Professor | Kakegawa, Hisao Professor |
| Okazaki, Shinichiro Associate Professor | Terao, Kyohei Associate Professor |
| Isoda, Kyosuke Associate Professor |
Molecular Tool Development
This field promotes a fundamental research on an innovation of the new face in life sciences using rare sugars as a molecular tool rather than simple energy sources as intermediate metabolites for energy transmission.
Kagawa University is the only research organization in the world, which can supply all kinds of rare sugars for various types of research and development.
Researchers
| Hoshino, Katsuaki Professor |
Kadowaki, Norimitsu Professor |
| Kuwahara, Tomomi Professor |
Sugimoto, Mikio Professor |
| Suzuma, Kiyoshi Professor |
Nishiyama, Akira Professor |
| Nishiyama, Yoshihiro Professor |
Fujiwara, Yuichiro Professor |
| Masaki, Tsutomu Professor |
Minamino, Tetsuo Professor |
| Miyake,Keisuke Professor |
Yamamoto,Tetsuji Professor |
| Kurahara, Rin Associate Professor |
Taoka, Rikiya Assistant Professor |
Clinical Trial
This field carries all responsibilities of clinical trials for the application of the rare sugars. Accumulation of repeated evidences will lead to make use of rare sugars in the treatment such as diabetes in the future.
Rare sugars and a part of the results of the clinical trials were shown in NHK nationwide broadcasting program "Good Morning Japan" in June, 2016.
Researchers
| Murao, Koji Professor |
Imachi, Hitomi Associate Professor |
| Kobayashi, Toshihiro Assistant Professor |
Microbial Sciences
This field promotes a fundamental research on rare sugar producing enzymes using microbes such as purifications, enzymatic reactions, structural analyses for chemical characterizations and application developments.
Kenji Morimoto1, Akihide Yoshihara, Toshio Furumoto, Goro Takata 2015. Production and application of a rare disaccharide using sucrose phosphorylase from Leuconostoc mesenteroides.
J. Biosci. Bioeng.119: 652–656.
Researchers
| Sakuraba, Haruhiko Professor |
Akimitsu, Kazuya Vice Director ＆ Professor |
| Takata, Goro Professor |
Morimoto, Kenji Professor |
| Yoshihara, Akihide Assistant Director ＆ Associate Professor |
Kato, Shiro Associate Professor |
| Mochizuki, Susumu Associate Professor |
Animal Sciences
This field promotes a fundamental research on various mode of actions of rare sugars for animals and animal cells for the development of applications using the identified mode of actions.
KMasashi Sato, Nobutoshi Yokoi, Hiroyuki Kurose, and Toru Yamasaki 2009. D-Ribose Competitively Reverses Inhibition by D-Psicose of Larval Growth in Caenorhabditis elegans.
J. Biosci. Bioeng.119: 652–656.
Researchers
| Sato, Masashi Professor |
Ito, Fuminori Professor |
| Tsukamoto, Ikuko Professor |
Hoshikawa, Hiroshi Professor |
| Miyake, Minoru Professor |
Arai, Meiji Associate Professor |
| Kawasaki, Kiyonori Associate Professor |
Sugiyama, Yasunori Associate Professor |
| Yanagida, Ryo Associate Professor |
Kamitori, Kazuyo Assistant Professor |
| Hanaki, Yusuke Assistant Professor |
Plant Sciences
This field promotes a fundamental research on rare sugar actions to plants and plant cells for development of applications as agriculture materials. In addition, an elucidation of various characteristic of Itea plant producing rare sugars is also progressing.
Akihito Kano, Takeshi Fukumoto, Kouhei Ohtani, Akihide Yoshihara, Toshiaki Ohara, Shigeyuki Tajima, Ken Izumori, Keiji Tanaka, Takeo Ohkouchi, Yutaka Ishida, Yoko Nishizawa, Kazuya Ichimura, Yasuomi Tada, Kenji Gomi and Kazuya Akimitsu 2013. The rare sugar D-allose acts as a triggering molecule of rice defence via ROS generation.
J. Exp. Bot. 64: 4939-4951.
Researchers
| Akimitsu, Kazuya Vice Director ＆ Professor |
Kataoka, Ikuo Director & Board of Trustee |
| Fukai, Seiichi Professor |
Takamura, Takejiro Professor |
| Nomura, Mika Professor |
Ichimura, Kazuya Professor |
| Gomi, Kenji Professor |
Food Sciences
This field analyzes rare sugar action properties and food properties such as antioxidative property or viscoelasticity of the thermally processed rare sugar added food to advance the fundamental researches to be connected for food development with an advantage of rare sugar functions.
Siwaporn O'Charoen, Shigeru Hayakawa and Masahiro Ogawa 2015. Food properties of egg white protein modified by rare ketohexoses through Maillard reaction.
Int. J. Food Sci. Technol. 50: 194–202.
Researchers
| Ogawa, Masahiro Professor |
Matsuo, Tatsuhiro Professor |
| Kawamura, Osamu Professor |
Tamura, Hirotoshi Professor |
| Morimoto, Kenji Professor |
Yonekura, Lina Associate Professor |
| Ishii, Toya Assistant Professor |
Teaching Material Development
This field uses Itea plant as a unique educational material for Kagawa region, which is the only plant known at present to contain rare sugars, and presents itself as a teaching material development study by cooperation with Kagawa Itea Research Meeting or the Kagawa CST Program.
Rare sugars and Itea plant were shown in NHK nationwide broadcasting program "Science Zero" in May, 2013.
Researchers
| Kitabayashi, Masahiro Professor |
Yamashita, Naoko Professor |
| Komori, Hirofumi Professor |
Shinohara, Wataru Professor |
| Miyake, Takashi Associate Professor |