Shuzo Kato / 加藤 修三

Ph.D. student

About

I am a Ph.D. student in the group of Prof. Jan Brugues at Cluster of Excellence Physics of Life, TU Dresden.

Fascinated by the beautiful nature of life, I am interested in how biological functions emerge from self-organization in non-equilibrium systems. Wandering at the intersection of physics, engineering and biology, I found my passion in pursuing the physics of life through tinkering.

I use interdisciplinary approaches of soft matter/statistical physics and cell/synthetic biology to understand emergent structures in the cells. With Prof. Yusuke Maeda at Kyushu University, I experimentally investigated cytoplasmic phase separation using cell-free expression systems and their interplay with gene expression. My work has also involved the quantitative analysis of biomolecular condensates within eukaryotic cells. By combining bottom-up and top-down approaches, I seek to elucidate principles in living systems from the origin of life to eukaryotes.

[Full CV]

Education

• Technische Universität Dresden (Oct. 2023 - Present)
  • Ph.D. student (Supervisor: Prof. Jan Brugues)
• Kyushu University (Apr. 2020 - Sep. 2023)
  • M.Sc. in Physics (2022)
  • MSc thesis: “Liquid-liquid phase separation and gene expression regulation in synthetic cells” (Supervisor: Prof. Yusuke T. Maeda)
• Keio University (Apr. 2015 - Mar. 2020)
  • B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering
  • BEng thesis: “Adsorption dynamics of pyruvic acids on struvite mineral surface: molecular dynamics study" (Supervisor: Prof. Kenji Yasuoka)
• Technische Universität München (Oct. 2018 - Aug. 2019)
  • Exchange study in Physics
  • Visiting research in molecular dynamics simulation of protein folding (Supervisor: Prof. Martin Zacharias)

Other Research Experiences

• RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) (Sep. - Nov. 2021)
  • Research assistant / Visiting student (Supervisor: Dr. Kyogo Kawaguchi)
  • Research and technological development of quantitative experiments on biomolecular condensates in eukaryotic cell nuclei

Publication (Peer-reviewed)

1. S. Kato, D. Garenne, V. Noireaux, Y. T. Maeda, "Phase Separation and Protein Partitioning in Compartmentalized Cell-Free Expression Reactions". Biomacromolecules 22, 3451-3459 (2021). [Link].

Publication (Japanese, 日本語)

1. 前多裕介, 加藤修三, 福山達也, “ソフトマターで分子を運び、選り分ける”, 607, 現代化学 (2021).

Fellowships & Grants

• JSPS Research Fellowship DC1, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2022-2023)

Awards

• Student Presentation Award, The Physical Society of Japan 2022 (77th) Annual Meeting (2022)
• Student Presentation Award, The 59th annual meeting of the Biophysical Society of Japan (2021)
• Fujiwara Award, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University (2020)

Talks

• Shuzo Kato, David Garenne, Vincent Noireaux and Yusuke T. Maeda, “The dynamics of droplet coarsening in confined cell-free expression reactions”, STATPHYS28, Tokyo, Japan, Aug. 2023.

Outreach

• Staff, The 63rd Summer School of the Young Researchers' Society for Biophysics (第63回生物物理若手の会夏の学校)
• Library Teaching Assistant (Cuter), Kyushu University Library
  • "細胞を こわす・つくる・理解する ~生命現象の物理学~ (Break, Build, and Understand Cells: The Physics of Life)", プレゼンテーション講座 [PDF]
• Maintainer, soft/living matter fanclub (@softlivmat_fc)
• Presenter, "“人工細胞” 細胞を作って探る 細胞内分子配置メカニズム (Synthetic cells: build to understand the subcellular organization)", XPLANE CAFE 5 MINUTE CHALLENGE [Link]