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Functional Materials Interdisciplinary Chemistry Lab (Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering)
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A soft materials lab that reads out pressure and biomolecules with light.
AboutAbout the lab
Materials for cancer medicine that read out pressure with light
The Functional Materials Interdisciplinary Chemistry Lab studies photofunctional soft materials with an eye toward cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The lab develops pressure-sensitive soft materials that read out the pressure applied to cells (acoustic waves) as molecular luminescence, as well as sensors that detect cancer-related substances with high sensitivity.
New photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy are also a subject of its research.
On the lab’s website, it is introduced under the name “Fukuhara Lab.”
Key terms
- Pressure-sensitive soft materials
- Molecular materials that read out pressure as molecular luminescence. The aim is to use them to observe the pressure applied to cells.
- Allosteric effect
- An effect in which, when a receptor takes in an analyte and changes its structure, the change is transmitted to a distant amplification site.
- Photodynamic therapy
- A cancer treatment in which a photosensitizer is administered into the body and light is applied to the tumor area. Abbreviated as PDT.
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
Analyzing the relationship between reactions occurring inside cancer cells and clinical cases calls for the development of new materials. This lab explores and develops photofunctional soft materials (ranging from organic molecules to supramolecules and polymers) that can measure the pressure (acoustic waves) actually applied to cells.
*Illustrative imageHigh-sensitivity sensors that measure through amplification
When a precisely designed receptor takes in an analyte, the resulting structural change is transmitted to an amplification site through an allosteric effect, producing an amplified signal. These sensors can also detect peptides secreted by pancreatic cancer with high sensitivity, and are expected to serve as materials for medical diagnosis.
*Illustrative imageCombination therapy targeting cancer and sugar
Among combination therapies that pair chemotherapeutic agents with different efficacy and antitumor mechanisms, the lab targets cancer and sugar. It has found that acarbose, a diabetes drug, can be measured with high sensitivity using a sensor made of curdlan, a polysaccharide, with a signal-output site attached.
*Illustrative imagePressure-sensitive soft materials that read out pressure with light
Probes that can measure the pressure (acoustic waves) applied to cells had long remained unrealized. The lab has found pressure-sensitive soft materials that read out pressure as molecular luminescence, and is searching for and developing, on a large scale, materials that can image the pressure waves of cells.
*Illustrative imageMaterials for photodynamic therapy, treating with light
To solve problems in photodynamic therapy (PDT), in which a photosensitizer is administered and light is applied to the tumor, the lab is developing stimuli-responsive photofunctional soft materials in which singlet fission proceeds, for use as photosensitizers. It is also extending this work to materials that trigger PDT efficiently through pressure stimulation.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Functional Materials Interdisciplinary Chemistry Lab consist of faculty members, master’s and undergraduate students, and secretaries.As of 2026
- ProfessorGaku Fukuhara
- Assistant ProfessorTomoyuki Hamachi
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Sensor image” Janakiraman janaki / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- High-sensitivity sensors that measure through amplification: “Fluorescence of Riboflavin in Water” Ksenia Kandurova, Yurii Kandurov, Dmitry Stavtsev / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Combination therapy targeting cancer and sugar: “Killer T cells surround a cancer cell” The National Institutes of Health / Public domain (cropped)
- Pressure-sensitive soft materials that read out pressure with light: “Army scientists use fluorescent gels to study blast pressure on the brain ( )” U.S. Army Research Laboratory / Public domain (cropped)
- Materials for photodynamic therapy, treating with light: “Photodynamic therapy (red)” John Crawford (Photographer) / Public domain (cropped)
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