Protonic NanoMachine Project focuses on the roles of protons as energy and signal carriers in the complex network formed by a vast number of macromolecular nanomachines that support various activities of life.
These biological nanomachines have the ability to form well-defined three-dimensional structure, to self-assemble in appropriate times and places to form large complexes, and to efficiently convert the energy as small as the thermal noise. By analyzing the structure and dynamics of these nanomachines, we try to reveal the unique mechanisms of flexible and yet precise functions and basic physical principle behind them, in the hope that they will become a basis for artificial nanomachine design and nanotechnology.

October 1997 - September 2002