BioCity Turku Guest Seminar: Profs. Atsuo Sasaki and Toshiya Senda
BioCity Turku Guest Seminar
20th August at 12:00-13:30
Onsite event
in Presidentti auditorium, BioCity
Coffee and sandwich at 11:45
Prof. Atsuo T. Sasaki, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, USA
Decoding GTP energy metabolism: insights into molecular oncogenesis and immunotherapy
and
Prof. Toshiya Senda, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Structural Biology Research Center, Japan
Crossroads of Cell Biology and Structural Biology: How Structural Biology Contributes to GTP Metabolism Studies
Host: Kari Kopra (kari.kopra@utu.fi)
Atsuo T. Sasaki is Professor of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Project Professor at Keio University’s Institute for Advanced Biosciences. His research focuses on GTP energy metabolism at the interface of signaling, growth control, cancer biology, and therapeutic development. His laboratory discovered the mammalian GTP sensor PI5P4Kβ and glioma GTP metabolic rewiring that supports ribosome biogenesis and proliferation. His group now develops GTP-GEEKS approaches to understand and target GTP-dependent biological programs. He is a 2022 Human Frontier Science Program Program Grant awardee.
Toshiya Senda is a Professor, Head of Synchrotron Radiation Science Division II, and Director of the Structural Biology Research Center at the Institute of Materials Structure Science, KEK. He employs multidisciplinary approaches to study histone chaperones, pathogenic signaling by Helicobacter pylori, and the catalytic mechanisms of redox enzymes. Over the past decade, as a member of the "GTP Geeks," he has focused on the structural biology aspects of GTP metabolism.
Selected publications
Matsugaki N, Senda T. Advances in macromolecular crystallography at the Photon Factory: automation from crystallization to structural determination. J Synchrotron Radiat. 2025, 32, 567-576. doi:10.1107/S1600577525001407
Ogawa-Iio, Takeuchi K, Shigemi K, …, Hashizume R, Osuka S, Goyama S, Yasuda T, Senda T, Sasaki AT IMPDH and GTP metabolism in cancer: Mechanisms, regulation, and translational scope. Cancer Sci. 2025, 116, 3250-3265. doi:10.1111/cas.70200
Takeuchi K, Senda M, Ikeda Y, Okuwaki K, Fukuzawa K, Nakagawa S, Sasaki M, Sasaki AT, Senda T. Functional molecular evolution of a GTP sensing kinase: PI5P4Kβ. FEBS J. 2023, 290, 4419-4428. doi:10.1111/febs.16763
Takeuchi K, Ikeda Y, Senda M, …, Fujii Y, Sasaki AT, Senda T. The GTP responsiveness of PI5P4Kβ evolved from a compromised trade-off between activity and specificity. Structure. 2022, 30, 886-899. doi:10.1016/j.str.2022.04.004
Kofuji S, Hirayama A, …, Wakimoto H, Holland EC, Yong WH, Horbinski C, Nakano I, DeBerardinis RJ, Bachoo RM, Mischel PS, Yasui W, Suematsu M, Saya H, Soga T, Grummt I, Bierhoff H, Sasaki AT. IMP dehydrogenase-2 drives aberrant nucleolar activity and promotes tumorigenesis in glioblastoma. Nat Cell Biol. 2019 Aug;21(8):1003-1014. doi: 10.1038/s41556-019-0363-9.