Speakers

Plenary lecturers

Prof. David Kehoe (Indiana University)

David Kehoe received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles (U.S.A.) in 1992. His postdoctoral research was conducted in the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Plant Biology at Stanford University, where he was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, from 1993 until 1998. He then joined the faculty in the Department of Biology at Indiana University, becoming a Full Professor in 2012. In 2010, Dr. Kehoe was made a Howard Hughes Medical Institute/United States National Academy of Sciences Education Fellow in the Life Sciences. In addition, he was made a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology within the American Society for Microbiology in 2015 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018. Dr. Kehoe is an author on over 60 publications. He has been an invited plenary speaker at seven national or international meetings. Dr. Kehoe’s research interests focus on the molecular mechanisms of signal transduction pathways controlling chromatic acclimation, a light-color acclimation response of photosynthetic light harvesting antennae.

Prof. Hitoshi Tamiaki (Ritsumeikan University)

Hitoshi Tamiaki is a Full Professor at the Graduate School of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University. He received his Doctoral Degree in Science from Kyoto University in 1986. After working as a JSPS Research Fellow for Young Scientists, he joined the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University as an Assistant Professor in 1987. He moved to the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University as an Associate Professor in 1993 and was promoted to Full Professor in 1999. He was an AvH fellow at MPI für Strahlenchemie in Mülheim (1991–92) and a PRESTO researcher of JST (1998–2001), and received the JPA Award 2006 and the 31st CSJ Award for Creative Work in 2014.

Selected speakers

1. Metabolism and catabolism of tetrapyrroles

Photo	Name	Affiliation	Tentative title
	Dr. Hisashi Ito	Hokkaido University, Japan	Functional and structural analysis of Mg-dechelatase involved in chlorophyll degradation
	Dr. Roman Sobotka	Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic	Regulation and the regulatory role of photosynthetic ferrochelatase
	Dr. Bernhard Grimm	Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany	Multiple posttranslational control of ALA synthesis
	Dr. Jennifer Bridwell-Rabb	University of Michigan, USA	A Metalloprotein Catalyzed Transformation in Chlorophyll Metabolism

2. Chloroplast biogenesis and retrograde signaling

Photo	Name	Affiliation	Tentative title
	Dr. Matthew Terry	University of Southampton, UK	The role of tetrapyrroles in chloroplast-to-nucleus signalling
	Dr. Tatsuru Masuda	The University of Tokyo, Japan	Functional analysis of heme-transporter in plant cell
	Dr. Hsou-min Li	Academia Sinica, Taiwan	Protein import into plastids – better signals and a better bridge
	Dr. Michal Gabruk	Jagiellonian University, Poland	The formation and the disassembly of prolamellar body are driven by LPOR

3. Bilin-based photoreceptors

Photo	Name	Affiliation	Tentative title
	Dr. Nathan C. Rockwell	University of California, Davis, USA	A conserved cyanobacteriochrome in early-branching cyanobacteria
	Dr. Xiaojing Yang	University of Illinois Chicago, USA	Protein structural transformation during the Pr/Pfr photoconversion in bacteriophytochromes
	Dr. Gen Enomoto	University of Electro-Communications, Japan	The light-dependent induction of cell polarity and the switching of moving direction in the rod-shaped cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus
	Dr. Tomotsumi Fujisawa	Saga University	Photoconversion mechanism of a green/red cyanobacteriochrome based on its molecular structure

4. Bilin-based optogenetics and bioimaging

Photo	Name	Affiliation	Tentative title
	Dr. Moritoshi Sato	The University of Tokyo/Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Japan	Manipulating living systems by light
	Dr. Kazuhiro Aoki	Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems, Japan	Development of SynPCB, a genetically encoded phycocyanobilin synthesis system, for the phytochrome-based optogenetics
	Dr. Minghai Chen	Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences	Near-infrared phytochrome based fluorescence complementation for imaging of protein-protein interactions in living cells and in vivo
	Dr. Robert E. Campbell	The University of Tokyo	Near-infrared fluorescent calcium ion biosensors based on engineered biliverdin-binding proteins

5. Bilin-based antenna proteins

Photo	Name	Affiliation	Tentative title
	Dr. Nicole Frankenberg-Dinkel	Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität, Germany	Phycocyanobilin biosynthesis in eukaryotic algae
	Dr. Jindong Zhao	Peking University, China	Energy transfer of the phycobilisomes and its regulation
	Dr. Noam Adir	Technion, Israel	Extreme heterogeneity in the A. marina Phycobilisome
	Dr. Yuu Hirose	Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan	Absorption tuning mechanism of the chromatic acclimation sensor in Cyanobacteria

6. Artificial photosynthesis

Photo	Name	Affiliation	Tentative title
	Dr. Dror Noy	Migal -Galilee Research Institute & Tel-Hai Academic College, Israel	Natural and computationally designed chlorophyll-binding protein building blocks for artificial photosynthetic systems
	Dr. Koji Oohora	Osaka University, Japan	Hemoprotein assembly containing porphyrinoid photosensitizers toward an artificial light-harvesting system

7. Chemistry and theory of tetrapyrroles

Photo	Name	Affiliation	Tentative title
	Dr. Bernhard Kräutler	University of Innsbruck, Austria	Novel chemistry of chlorophyll breakdown in vascular plants
	Dr. Min Chen	University of Sydney, Australia	Chlorophyll f and the mechanism of chlorophyll f formation: current research status
	Dr. Igor Schapiro	The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel	Insight into the Spectral Tuning and Photoisomerization Mechanism of Cyanobacteriochromes Using Hybrid QM/MM Simulations
	Dr. Yuichiro Kashiyama	Fukui University of Technology, Japan	Biochemical elucidation of CPE-accumulating chlorophyll catabolism conserved among diverse eukaryotes