PAHs are no longer static molecular skeletons. We can grow, diversify, and even edit them. Our Review is now out in @ACSChemRev! From APEX to skeletal/molecular editing, all through cycloaddition-based retrosynthetic logic. Congrats Sajan and the team! doi.org/10.1021/acs....

Congratulations to Ayaka and everyone! A wonderful @JST_ASPIRE collaboration with Bart Jan Ravoo and Christos Gatsogiannis at the University of Münster. I was so excited by this cryo-EM structure that I couldn’t sleep! Video by Issey Takahashi (@RIKEN). More to come—stay tuned!

Cryo-EM resolves the fibers at 1.7 Å, revealing tightly packed protofilaments, ordered water channels, and a unidirectional dipole along the fiber. Together, aromatic stacking, polar interactions, and water organization generate emergent electrostatics and mechanical resilience.

Our paper, “Atomic-precision π-driven peptide hydrogel nanofibers with ordered water channels,” is now out in @NatureComms! A π-extended aromatic unit turns a terminally uncapped dipeptide into a highly ordered, self-healing supramolecular hydrogel. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Welcoming the new academic year under the cherry blossoms 🌸 The beautiful weather and sakura make it feel like a year of exciting research and big breakthroughs ahead.

Extremely excited to visit Basel (Basel Chemical Society Lecture) and ETH-Zurich this week! www.bcg-bcs.ch www.bcg-bcs.ch/lectures/ chab.ethz.ch/en/research/...

Basler Chemische Gesellschaft - Basel Chemical Society

The Basel Chemical Society was founded over 100 years ago to connect chemists in the Basel area by hosting lectures, symposia and informal meetings.

bcg-bcs.ch

Our CoMBiS kickoff symposium (supported by JST ASPIRE) was huge success!! Thank you so much everyone for the organization and sharing exciting science!!!

Excited for the kickoff symposium of the Itami ASPIRE project (CoMBiS) this week at RIKEN! Researchers from Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Korea, and Japan will come together to spark new international collaborations in carbon-based material–biology interface science (CoMBiS)!

Super fun lab trip at Hakone!! Lots of foods, drinks, activity, and laugh, making our bonds stronger!! We all greatly appreciate Andoh-kun and Ayaka for amazing organization!! You are GOAT!

Big news! 🎉 Our very own Hideya Kono has been awarded the Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists, recognizing outstanding researchers under 37. Massive congrats, Hideya!

Finally, L-region-selective APEX reaction through dearomative activation. Congrats to Kanami, Wataru, and Hideto!! pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Super excited to hear significant research progress at our year-end presentation! Of course we fully enjoyed the year-end party afterwards!! Thank you all for our great 2025 and let’s make our 2026 even greater!!

Our very own Hideya Kono will receive Inoue Research Award for Young Scientists!!! Huge congratulations Hideya!!! www.inoue-zaidan.or.jp/b-01.html?ei...

Mini ASPiRE happening at Honolulu with @cathleencrudden.bsky.social

German Christmas Night in Itami Lab!! Thank you all!! Sooo fun!

Short but very concentrated visit to Tottori University for the lecture and short course. I sincerely thank Nokami-san, Matsuura-san and many other profs and students there for sharing exciting discussions!! Many many thanks for the wonderful hospitality!

Great pizza party!!! Otsukare party for the Itami Lab Reunion Symposium which was huge success! Many thanks all!!

Itami Lab Reunion Symposium, IKOCS, was huge success!!! 140 people gathered in RIKEN! Great lectures, discussion, and party!!! So many thanks for coming and also to current members for dedicated organization! GOAT!

Mission complete! As a CNRS chemistry ambassador, I did 7 lectures at 7 different places in France in 11 days! 3800 km by trains! It was hard but huge fun to find lots of seeds for future collaboration! Thanks everyone! I will come back!!

Today we have the pleasure to host Ken Itami in Rennes as a @cnrs.fr ambassador. Fantastic talk! 👍 @kenitami.bsky.social @iscr-rennes.bsky.social

We welcome Lucas (6 month master course study) and Ayaka (staff scientist) in Itami Lab!! So nice to have you two! Let’s explore crazy chemistry!!!

It was huge fun!! Many thanks Murakami Lab!!! See you next at RIKEN!!

Kei Murakami (previous staff) and Yota Sakakibara (previous student) in front of beautiful campus. Super great host!

Yesterday I fully enjoyed the really exciting discussion and mixing with Murakami Lab, Kwansei Gakuin University. Door to door it took me 6 hours to come but worth it! Today and tomorrow, I will do extensive short course and lecture!

Thanks Larry!!!

Lawrence T. (Larry) Scott@scott61144.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Congratulations, Ken!

Extremely excited to be selected as CNRS Ambassador for Chemical Sciences in France! I expect the upcoming lecture tour to strengthen the ties between French and Japanese science, fostering a spirit of mutual inspiration.  www.inc.cnrs.fr/fr/cnrsinfo/...

CNRS Chemistry welcomes Kenichiro Itami as the Ambassador in Chemical Sciences

On 13 October, 2025, Kenichiro Itami, Chief Scientist and Direc

inc.cnrs.fr

Tomoki’s work making non-emissive [6]CPP fluorescent by simple multiple methyl substitution is now out @chemicalscience.rsc.org ! We hope this simple, yet pronounced ‘methyl effect’ facilitates the design and application of CPP-based materials in various fields! 
pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/A...

A bioactive nanocarbon that targets cross-species PPIs. We discovered a molecular nanocarbon (clionene) that inhibits PPIs in insect diapause and human immune signalings. Very exciting collaboration with Larry Scott @scott61144.bsky.social and Hasegawa lab! chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

A bioactive nanocarbon that targets cross-species protein–protein interactions

The quest for bioactive molecules has long been confined to a rather narrow chemical space, limiting the discovery of uncharted chemical structures. Identifying such compounds is essential for uncover...

chemrxiv.org

Happy birthday Prof. Noyori and Dorae-mon!

Don’t miss Noyori’s autobiography “Research should be fresh, simple, and clear”, recently released !

l-i-c.org/ryoji-noyori...

Could caterpillar guts help to manufacture nanomaterials? Check out the RIKEN research highlight! www.riken.jp/en/news_pubs...

Could caterpillar guts help to manufacture nanomaterials?

riken.jp