Ryota Iino
Institute for Molecular Science
Biophysical Journal Editor, Molecular Machines, Motors, and Nanoscale Biophysics 

What are you currently working on that excites you?

I am a single-molecule biophysicist who loves protein molec-ular motors and molecular machines. I am currently involved in a government-funded “Molecular Engine” initiative in Japan (http://www.molecular-engine.bio.titech.ac.jp/eng/index.html; Iino et al., Chem. Rev. 2020, 120, 1, 1–4). This is an interdisci-plinary network of researchers with diverse backgrounds such as synthetic chemistry, single-molecule biophysics, structural biology, non-equilibrium statistical physics, and molecular and mathematical simulations. The goal of this initiative is to un-derstand the common operational and design principles of bi-ological and synthetic molecular machines. As expressed in the famous words by Richard Feynman, “What I cannot create, I do not understand.” I would like to create non-natural autonomous molecular machines and molecular machine systems capable of interconversion of various forms of energy via mechanical motions. I also would like to extend our research network to all over the world including the United States.

How do you stay on top of all the latest developments in your field?

I have been using Twitter for more than 10 years. It has been very helpful for me to follow new results in my field of research as well as other related areas of biophysics. I have my own account (@ryotaiino) and it has been very helpful in widely promoting our new results and introducing exciting results by other groups. I enjoy being able to connect with outstanding re-searchers in the world, even if I have never met them in person