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Drug Molecular Design Lab
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The lab designs and synthesizes new bioactive molecules from sugars, lipids, and natural products.
AboutAbout the lab
Designing and synthesizing new bioactive molecules.
The Drug Molecular Design Lab (Hirai Lab) designs and synthesizes new bioactive molecules, starting from natural products, sugars, and lipids.
Combining knowledge of organic chemistry and biology, the lab makes molecules with higher activity or new functions with its own hands and evaluates how they work.
The lab also works on the synthesis and functional evaluation of "glycan mimetics," in which the oxygen in the bond linking sugars in a glycan is replaced with carbon.
Key terms
- Glycan mimetic
- An analog of a natural glycan, made by replacing part of its structure
- C-glycoside
- A linkage in which the oxygen connecting a sugar to another molecule is replaced with carbon. It is resistant to cleavage by enzymes
- Mincle
- A receptor protein involved in immunity
- Photoaffinity labeling
- A method for identifying binding partners using a reactive group that binds nearby proteins when exposed to light
NewsLab news
Doctoral and master's students received a Poster Award at the 10th FCCA Symposium Glycoscience Young Researchers Forum 2026
Lecturer Makoto Yoritate received an Encouragement Award at the 25th Natural Products Chemistry Colloquium
Master's student received an Outstanding Poster Award at the 63rd Joint Kyushu Meeting of Chemistry-Related Branches
Paper received the Synlett Best Paper Award 2025
Doctoral student received a Best Discussion Award at the 36th Fukuoka Symposium
ResearchResearch themes
Rather than simply synthesizing bioactive molecules, the lab combines knowledge of organic chemistry and biology to create "new bioactive molecules that do not yet exist." Starting mainly from natural products, sugars, and lipids, it designs molecules with high activity or new functions, synthesizes them itself, and evaluates how they work.
*Illustrative imageGlycan Mimetics with Edited Linkages
C-glycosides, in which the oxygen connecting sugars is replaced with carbon, are expected to be stable analogs that resist degradation. The lab edits the linkage, for example by introducing fluorine onto the carbon, and examines changes in biological activity.
*Illustrative imageSynthesis of Glycan Mimetics Modified at Position 2
The lab designs glycan mimetics in which the hydroxy group at position 2 of the sugar is replaced with an exomethylene group. It developed a glycosylation reaction in which stereoselectivity is controlled by the ligand of a palladium catalyst, and also examined the activity toward the immune receptor Mincle.
*Illustrative imageDeveloping Probes to Study Glycans and Lipids
The lab is developing derivatives and probes to investigate the action of NSF, a small molecule secreted by fission yeast. For photoaffinity labeling to find proteins that bind glycans, it also developed a photoreactive group with lower hydrophobicity.
*Illustrative imageSynthesis and Functional Study of Oxidized Lipids
The lab synthesized the complex polycyclic skeletons of physalins, bitter components of the Chinese lantern (Physalis), and evaluated their inhibitory effect on NF-κB activation. It also works on the chemical synthesis of oxidized cholesterol and isoprostanes, which exist only in trace amounts, aiming to elucidate their functions.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Drug Molecular Design Lab consist of faculty, administrative assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorGo Hirai
- LecturerMakoto Yoritate
- Assistant ProfessorHiroaki Matoba
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “Kandiszucker” Dietmar Rabich / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Glycan Mimetics with Edited Linkages: “Dehydration of sugar by sulfuric acid” Capaccio / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Synthesis of Glycan Mimetics Modified at Position 2: “Sugar 2xmacro” Lauri Andler (Phantom) / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Developing Probes to Study Glycans and Lipids: “Fluorescent lights” Luke / Public domain (cropped)
- Synthesis and Functional Study of Oxidized Lipids: “Physalis alkekengi Coronini” Syrio / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Environmentally Benign Medicinal Chemistry Lab): “Palladium on carbon” Marbletan / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Precision Molecular Transformation Chemistry Lab): “Positron Emission Tomography” Christkannada / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (International Chemical and Physical Pharmaceutical Sciences Lab): “Probable Nucleic Acid precipitated” michael / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Green Chemistry Division Lab): “Pharmaceutical Chemistry Lab” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
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