Mechanical Behaviors and Properties of Protein Materials
For a recent decade, the mechanical behaviors and properties of proteins have been found to play a crucial role in their biological functions. For instance, the mechanical unfolding of muscle protein titin is highly correlated with the elastic response of muscle fibers. In a last decade, the excellent mechanical properties of protein assemblies such as amyloid fibrils have been found and these properties are related to the pathological functions of amyloid fibrils. The objective of our study is to understand the origin of the mechanical properties and functions of various protein materials ranging from single proteins to protein assemblies by using computational simulations and experiments.Self-Assembly Process of Amyloidogenic Proteins
Amyloid proteins are found to be self-assembled resulting in the formation of highly ordered structures such as amyloid fibrils and oligomers, which have been found from organs of patients suffering from various diseases ranging from neurodegenerative diseases to type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Despite the pathological role of self-assembled structures, the underlying mechanisms of this self-assembly process have remained elusive. Our study is aimed towards gaining insight into the mechanisms of self-assembly process to form a highly ordered structure based on computational simulations and experiments.Analysis of Human Motion
To understand the motional performance of sport athletes or normal people, it is of high significance to analyze the human motion. We have worked on analyzing the motion in order to understand how the balance of sport athletes and normal people is determined. The motional analysis is conducted based on experiments using inertial measurement unit and motion capture cameras. In addition, we are interested in evaluating the motional performance of patients for their rehabilitation. The objective of our work is to improve the motional performance of sport athletes or normal people (including patients) based on the motion analysis.