Toshiyuki Ueki
Senior Research Fellow

Fax: 413-545-1578
PhD
Bioscience, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Research Interests
My research interests are to understand evolutionary, ecological, and biochemical significance of microbes to Earth and to exploit a wide spectrum of microbial ability for our life. We are facing serious environmental issues, such as controlling disease, curbing greenhouse gas emissions, finding renewable energy sources, producing safe food, managing waste, and regulating pollution. Microbes play a critical role in every ecosystem and take part in a variety of biotechnology practices. Environmental microbiology and microbial biotechnology are increasingly recognized to have tremendous impacts on these issues.
Electromicrobiology
Electroactive microbes are found in diverse environments and have a great effect on the biogeochemical cycle in the environment. They may also get involved in our own body. They have been employed for biotechnology applications such as bioremediation and energy generation. Extracellular electron transfer is a key feature in electroactive microbes, which can transfer electrons to or from metals, electrodes, or other microbial cells as an electron acceptor or electron donor. The extracellular electron transfer can be performed via direct physical contact with electron acceptors/donors or via electron shuttles between microbial cells and electron acceptors/donors. I am interested in elucidating molecular mechanisms in the extracellular electron transfer and applying electroactive microbes to biotechnology practices. Microbes of interest are Geobacter (metal-reducing bacteria), Desulfovibrio (sulfate-reducing bacteria), Methanosarcina (methane-producing archaea), and Syntrophus (syntrophic bacteria).
Bioelectronics
Biologically inspired electronics is one of the fields where electroactive microbes can make great contributions. Microbially produced protein nanowires are a sustainable ‘green’ electronic biomaterial. Microbial protein nanowires have enabled the development of innovative electronic devices for sustainable energy harvesting from the ambient environment, neuron-like memory devices, and sensors for biomedical and environmental applications. My interest is to apply synthetic biology approaches to development of inventive bioelectronics. Protein nanowires of interest are type IV pili from Geobacter.