Introduction of Research

Photosynthetic organisms capture sunlight to produce carbohydrates. While this is a well-known photoreaction, the molecular mechanism is unclear yet. In particular, a fundamental question is how the localized light stimulation caused by the photoexcitation of a pigment cascades from molecules, proteins, and biological membranes to cells. By developing our own spectromicroscopic techniques for spatial, temporal, and energetic decomposition analysis of photoreaction processes in biological systems, we elucidate the regulation principle of the photoreaction, seamlessly correlating molecular to higher-order membrane systems. Furthermore, we explore new research fields such as spectral analysis of extinct photosynthetic organisms, fluctuation-based spectroscopy, and quantum measurements of biological systems.