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Chemistry

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Research.com Recognitions

  • 2010 - Gregori Aminoff Prize, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his seminal crystallographic studies of membrane proteins. Using state-of-the-art crystallographic methods, he has elucidated vital biological functions within the fields of cellular respiration, photosynthesis and molecular transport

Overview

So Iwata is affiliated with Kyoto University in Japan and specializes in the field of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology. Their research output includes a significant focus on Molecular Biology, with additional contributions to Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Materials Chemistry, Plant Science, and Nutrition and Dietetics.

Their scientific work centers on several main topics including Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling, Photoreceptor and Optogenetics Research, Enzyme Structure and Function, and Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms. Other notable topics are Light Effects on Plants, Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior, and Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research.

So Iwata has authored multiple research papers published in a range of high-profile scientific journals. Recent papers include:

  • Atg9 is a lipid scramblase that mediates autophagosomal membrane expansion (2020, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology)
  • Structural insights into tetraspanin CD9 function (2020, Nature Communications)
  • Structure of SARS-CoV-2 membrane protein essential for virus assembly (2022, Nature Communications)
  • Spermidine activates mitochondrial trifunctional protein and improves antitumor immunity in mice (2022, Science)
  • Structural basis for channel conduction in the pump-like channelrhodopsin ChRmine (2022, Cell)

The researcher frequently collaborates with colleagues including Eriko Nango, Norimichi Nomura, Kensuke Tono, Rie Tanaka, and Shigeki Owada.

So Iwata's work has been published extensively in several key scientific forums. Primary venues include:

  • Nature Communications
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
  • Nature
  • Science Advances

In recognition of their contributions, So Iwata received the Gregori Aminoff Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2010. This award cited their seminal crystallographic studies of membrane proteins, noting the elucidation of vital biological functions related to cellular respiration, photosynthesis, and molecular transport using state-of-the-art crystallographic methods.

Best Publications

  • Architecture of the Photosynthetic Oxygen-Evolving Center

    Kristina N. Ferreira;Tina M. Iverson;Karim Maghlaoui;James Barber

  • Structure at 2.8 A resolution of cytochrome c oxidase from Paracoccus denitrificans.

    So Iwata;Christian Ostermeier;Bernd Ludwig;Hartmut Michel

  • Structure and mechanism of the lactose permease of Escherichia coli

    Jeff Abramson;Irina Smirnova;Vladimir Kasho;Gillian Verner

  • Complete structure of the 11-subunit bovine mitochondrial cytochrome bc1 complex.

    So Iwata;Joong W. Lee;Kengo Okada;John Kyongwon Lee

  • Architecture of succinate dehydrogenase and reactive oxygen species generation.

    Victoria Yankovskaya;Rob Horsefield;Susanna Törnroth;César Luna-Chavez;César Luna-Chavez

  • Structure of the human histamine H1 receptor complex with doxepin.

    Tatsuro Shimamura;Tatsuro Shimamura;Mitsunori Shiroishi;Mitsunori Shiroishi;Simone Weyand;Hirokazu Tsujimoto

  • Overcoming the challenges of membrane protein crystallography.

    Elisabeth P Carpenter;Konstantinos Beis;Alexander D Cameron;So Iwata;So Iwata

  • The X-ray crystal structures of wild-type and EQ(I-286) mutant cytochrome c oxidases from Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

    Margareta Svensson-Ek;Jeff Abramson;Gisela Larsson;Gisela Larsson;Susanna Törnroth

  • Light-induced structural changes and the site of O=O bond formation in PSII caught by XFEL.

    Michihiro Suga;Fusamichi Akita;Fusamichi Akita;Michihiro Sugahara;Minoru Kubo

  • Molecular basis of proton motive force generation: structure of formate dehydrogenase-N.

    Mika Jormakka;Susanna Törnroth;Bernadette Byrne;So Iwata;So Iwata

  • The structure of the ubiquinol oxidase from Escherichia coli and its ubiquinone binding site.

    Jeff Abramson;Sirpa Riistama;Gisela Larsson;Audrius Jasaitis

  • Exercise Intolerance Due to Mutations in the Cytochrome b Gene of Mitochondrial DNA

    Antoni L. Andreu;Michael G. Hanna;Heinz Reichmann;Claudio Bruno

  • Overcoming barriers to membrane protein structure determination

    Roslyn M. Bill;Peter J. F. Henderson;So Iwata;Edmund R. S. Kunji

  • A three-dimensional movie of structural changes in bacteriorhodopsin

    Eriko Nango;Antoine Royant;Antoine Royant;Minoru Kubo;Takanori Nakane

  • Atg9 is a lipid scramblase that mediates autophagosomal membrane expansion

    Kazuaki Matoba;Tetsuya Kotani;Akihisa Tsutsumi;Takuma Tsuji

  • Structure and Molecular Mechanism of a Nucleobase-Cation-Symport-1 Family Transporter

    Simone Weyand;Tatsuro Shimamura;Tatsuro Shimamura;Shunsuke Yajima;Shun'ichi Suzuki

  • GFP-based optimization scheme for the overexpression and purification of eukaryotic membrane proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

    David Drew;Simon Newstead;Yo Sonoda;Hyun Kim

  • Retinal isomerization in bacteriorhodopsin captured by a femtosecond x-ray laser

    Przemyslaw Nogly;Tobias Weinert;Daniel James;Sergio Carbajo

  • Structure of a water soluble fragment of the ‘Rieske’ iron–sulfur protein of the bovine heart mitochondrial cytochrome bc1 complex determined by MAD phasing at 1.5 å resolution

    So Iwata;Monica Saynovits;Thomas A Link;Hartmut Michel

  • Structural and Computational Analysis of the Quinone-binding Site of Complex II (Succinate-Ubiquinone Oxidoreductase) A MECHANISM OF ELECTRON TRANSFER AND PROTON CONDUCTION DURING UBIQUINONE REDUCTION

    Rob Horsefield;Victoria Yankovskaya;Graham Sexton;William Whittingham

  • G-protein-coupled receptor inactivation by an allosteric inverse-agonist antibody

    Tomoya Hino;Takatoshi Arakawa;Hiroko Iwanari;Takami Yurugi-Kobayashi

  • Structural Basis of Biological N2O Generation by Bacterial Nitric Oxide Reductase

    Tomoya Hino;Yushi Matsumoto;Shingo Nagano;Hiroshi Sugimoto

Frequent Co-Authors

Alexander D. Cameron
Alexander D. Cameron University of Warwick
Makina Yabashi
Makina Yabashi Uppsala University
Osamu Nureki
Osamu Nureki University of Tokyo
Mikako Shirouzu
Mikako Shirouzu RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research
Masaki Yamamoto
Masaki Yamamoto University of Hyogo
Mark S.P. Sansom
Mark S.P. Sansom University of Oxford
Takaho Terada
Takaho Terada University of Tokyo
Hartmut Michel
Hartmut Michel Max Planck Society
Gary Cecchini
Gary Cecchini University of California, San Francisco

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