Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, Professor Kazuaki Sawada awarded the FY 2013 Science and Technology Award [Research Division] honored by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
08 May 2013
Kazuaki Sawada, a professor in Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering was awarded the FY 2013 Science and Technology Award [Research Division] honored by the Minister of MEXT, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Professor Kazuaki Sawada received the Science and Technology Award [Research Division] honored by the Minister of MEXT on his "Research on an Ion Imaging System."
This award is given by the Minister of MEXT to those with a high potential for contributing to the development of science and technology in Japan with original research or development.
The granting of this award was decided by the Ministry of MEXT on April 8th, and an award ceremony held on the 16th. We, at the university, conducted a briefing session on April 17th for this award winning work at our 1st regular press conference with the attendance of President Yoshiyuki Sakaki.
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| Professor Kazuaki Sawada explaining the research | Scene of the regular press conference |
[Overview of the Award Winning Work]
In spite of the fact that the movement of ions is an important index that governs our bodies, up until now, we were only able to observe their movement using indirect methods such as fluorescent dyes. It was conventionally, commonplace to measure ion densitometry with "points"; there was no concept of two-dimensional distributed measurements.
In this research, we researched and developed an ion imaging sensor that can obtain the movement of ions and neurotransmitters unlabeled, by combining biosensor technology and image sensor technology.
Due to this research, we were able to actualize an ion imaging sensor system in which measurements by video of the movement of ions and neurotransmitters could be conducted in real-time and in micron resolution. In addition, we were able to succeed in unlabeled observation--the first in the world--and actually see the ion distribution ion transfer activity of living cells by putting living cells directly on top of the developed chip.
This achievement was successful in the visualization of microscopic ion movement inside and outside cells that were up until now, unclear. More so, due to the fact that we are now able to potentially solve such bodily functions on an ionic level, contributions to the medical and innovative drug development fields in the future looks promising.
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| Demonstration using an ion imaging sensor Professor Kazuaki Sawada receiving the award | ||
See here for details (Japanese) : PDF: 2.3MB