Naoki Umezawa, Ph.D., Professor
Yosuke Hisamatsu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

• Creation of functional molecules useful for elucidating biological functions
• Rational design and synthesis of pharmaceutical lead compounds
• Development of functional molecules based on new concepts
• Development of technologies to achieve drug discovery using medium-sized molecules (e.g., peptides)

Our research is based on organic chemistry to develop molecules that are useful in drug discovery and life science research. We design and create molecules with excellent functions incorporating our original ideas. As an example, we are developing molecules that selectively bind to proteins, nucleic acids, and metal complexes that exist in living organisms. Molecules that bind to cancer-related proteins are expected to be anti-cancer agents because they can be enzyme inhibitors or protein-protein interaction inhibitors.
In addition to conventional organic synthesis, solid-phase synthesis is also utilized to synthesize target molecules. Solid-phase synthesis is suitable for the synthesis of molecules with repeating structures, such as peptides and nucleic acids. Peptides are attracting attention as a new drug discovery modality (method or means) next to conventional small molecule and macromolecular drugs, but there are still some issues to be solved. We aim to overcome these challenges by developing peptides that are both highly active and stable in vivo, and peptides that are active only in specific environments such as diseased cells. We are also working on the development of molecules that can distinguish the three-dimensional structure of nucleic acids and selectively bind to endogenous metal complexes called heme.

Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya City University,
3-1, Tanabe-dori, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8603, Japan

E-mail:umezawa@phar.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
TEL/FAX:+81-52-836-3435