Academic Staff and Fellows

SAGA Yoshitaka: Professor Doctor of Engineering; Department/Science　 Graduate school/Science

We focus on the mechanisms of photobiological reactions, such as photosynthesis, at the molecular level. In addition, we develop photofunctional nanomaterials that will contribute to solve energy and environmental issues.

Elucidation of photosynthetic mechanism at the molecular level

Research Area	Photobiological Chemistry
Research Interests	(1)Biochemical and Biophysical Studies on Structure-Function Relationship of Photosynthetic Proteins (2)Contol of photofunctions of Natural Photosynthetic Systems (3)Development of Artificial Photosynthetic Systems (4)Utilization of biomass by photochemical methodology
Selected Publications	(1) Y. Saga, S. Kawato, J. Harada Chlorophyll reconstitution of photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes Plant Cell Physiol. (2025) 66, 1575-1587. (2) S. Kawato, C. Uragami, K. Inada, S. Sato, Y. Kimura, H. Kitoh-Nishioka, H. Hashimoto, Y. Saga Spectral features and excited state dynamics of carotenoid in B800-depleted light-harvesting complex 2 J. Phys. Chem. Lett. (2025) 23, 871-879. (3) Y. Saga, Y. Sasamoto, K. Inada, Z.-Y. Wang-Otomo, Y. Kimura Spectral modulation of B850 bacteriochlorophyll a in light-harvesting complex 2 from purple photosynthetic bacterium Thermochromatium tepidum by detergents and calcium ions Biochim. Biophys. Acta Bioenerg. (2024) 1865, 149503. (4) S. Kawato, S. Sato, H. Kitoh-Nishioka, Y. Saga Spectral changes of light-harvesting complex 2 lacking B800 bacteriochlorophyll a under neutral pH conditions Photochem.Photobiol. Sci. (2024) 23, 871-879.
Research and Achievements	03_saga_yoshitaka.pdf
Education (Undergraduate Course)	The University of Tokyo
Education (Master's/Doctral Course)	The University of Tokyo

Biological Chemistry Laboratory

E-mail	saga（at）chem.kindai.ac.jp Note that this e-mail address has replaced the "@" with "(at)" to prevent spam. When e-mailing, replace the "(at)" with "@".