Hydrogels of Cytoskeletal Proteins ― Preparation, Structure, and Emergent Functions

This book describes a new family of bio-polymer gels made from cytoskeletal proteins - actin, microtubule, and tropomyosin. The importance of the gel state with multi-scale hierarchical structure is emphasized to utilize emergent functions in living organisms. Detailed protocol of gel preparation, specified method of structure investigation, and dynamic studies of self-organization, self-healing, synchronized oscillating, and autonomous motility functions are introduced together with biomimetic functions of synthetic hydrogels.

Professor Yoshihito Osada obtained his Bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Waseda University, Japan, and received his Ph.D. in polymer science from Moscow State University (supervisor: Prof. V.A. Kabanov). He began as a professor in 1992, then became the Dean and eventually the Vice President of Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. He was invited to be Deputy Director at the Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN in 2007. He is currently a Senior Visiting Scientist at RIKEN and a professor emeritus at Hokkaido University.

Professor Yoshihito Osada is a pioneer of polymer gels. He developed artificial muscle systems using various functional gels such as Shape Memory Gel and Double Network Gel with excellent mechanical performances. His current interests focus on highly-hierarchical protein gels with “emergent” muscle functions, nano-patterning of the gel, and electro-conductive gels.<

Ken-Ichi Sano received his B.S. degree in biology from Osaka City University, Japan, in 1993, and his Ph.D. degree in biophysics from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2000. In 1994, he joined the International Institute for Advanced Research, Panasonic, and since 1999 he has worked for RIKEN, Harima Institute at SPring-8. Since 2003 he has been with the Department of Protein Engineering, Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, where he studied interfacial molecules between biomaterials and inorganics. In 2008, he joined the Molecular and System Life Science Unit, Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN as a Contract Researcher, and became Deputy Unit Leader in 2009 where he studied hydrogels of cytoskeletal proteins. In April 2011 he joined the Department of Innovative Systems Engineering, Nippon Institute of Technology as an Associate Professor. His current research interests include cellular drug delivery systems and evaluation of antidepressant agents using novel models.

Ryuzo Kawamura was born in Nara, Japan, in 1980. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 2005 and received his Ph.D. in polymer science from Hokkaido University, Japan (supervisor: Prof. J.P. Gong) in 2008. He did postdoctoral research at RIKEN and at the National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST). Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in Department of Chemistry, Saitama University, Japan.

In 2009, he joined the Molecular and System Life Science Unit, Advanced Science Institute, RIKEN. There he developed the Multi-scale Hierarchical Supra-Macromolecular Gels (MHSMG) as a new type of material. His current research interest is in coordinative and mesoscale functions of the cytoskeletal and motor proteins with both viewpoints of material science and biology.