Biophysical Society Bulletin | May 2023

Biophysicist in Profile

KoMomotani Area of Research Analysis of molecular pathways of smooth muscle regulation

Institution Sanyo-Onoda City University

At-a-Glance

Ko Momotani, professor at Sanyo-Onoda City University in Japan, spends his time between Japan and the United States. Over the years, he has developed a competence at cultural translation, which he tries to instill in his students in addition to their scientific training.

Ko Momotani

Ko Momotani grew up in Tokyo. After he graduated from high school in Japan, he moved to the United States to pursue higher education. “I started my education in the U.S. at Van derbilt University English Language Center because my En glish wasn’t good enough for college-level classes,” he shares. “I started my actual college-level education at Nashville State Community College, called Nashville Tech at the time, then transferred to Middle Tennessee State University, and trans ferred again to Penn State to complete my bachelor’s degree.” While he had loved science since he was a child, moving to the United States for his undergraduate studies reinforced his focus on STEM. He wasn’t yet fluent in English, so the uni versality of math and science was appealing. “The language of math and science, such as numbers, is the same in any language, allowing me to merge into the American educa tional system quickly,” he says. “I then became interested in addressing the question of how biological systems work. The initial and fundamental question still is why one state is called ‘alive’ and the other state is called ‘death,’ although molecu lar construction at a fixed time must be ‘almost’ the same. I understand that these two states are getting lately not clearly distinguishable, but it is still a fundamental question for me.” After earning his bachelor’s degree, Momotani attended the University of Virginia for his PhD studies. His professors Andrew P. Somlyo and Avril V. Somlyo in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics introduced him to his current area of research in the analysis of molecular pathways of smooth muscle contraction regulation. Aaron Franke , Vice President of Insight at Brain Surgery World wide, Inc., first met Momotani when both were trainees in the Somlyo lab. “I was starting my postdoc in the Somlyo lab and Ko was a graduate student at the time. It was in late Novem ber when I joined the lab and I remember seeing Ko in what I would learn to be his trademark appearance: wearing a puffer jacket and constantly moving at full pace,” Franke shares. “Ko was in constant movement—physically, mentally, and verbal ly—he loves to talk and share! He was also the first person

to offer to show me around the hospital and university, which provided me a quick glimpse into the level that he cares for all people around him.” “We worked on multiple projects in smooth muscle regula tion, but we also worked together outside of the lab which solidifies the type of person Ko is,” Franke adds. “We worked together on different home projects to reimagine our living spaces and build something new and different for our fam ilies. This was important because it allowed us to learn new techniques, be creative, solve new problems, and work as a team. Designing and implementing a more functional bath room or kitchen is fundamentally equivalent to designing and implementing an experiment in a lab setting. Working on different projects outside of the lab also provided us new perspectives that allowed us to think about physiological pro cesses differently. Structure dictates function in all settings.” As a postdoctoral researcher, he focused on the same re search area. “Being very simple, smooth muscle is regulated via two major pathways, calcium-dependent and -inde pendent,” he explains. “There was a missing link within the calcium-independent pathway, and I identified a protein called p63RhoGEF playing a role in that pathway.” Momotani now serves as a professor at Sanyo-Onoda City University in Japan. “Our lab is designing a cost-efficient in vivo screening method for blood vessel relaxing com pounds—drug candidates for hypertension treatment—using zebrafish,” he shares. His favorite thing about biophysics is its breadth. “Biophys ics covers vast areas and has impressive flexibility, from classic biological science to cutting-edge computer science, and serves as an intersection of multidisciplinary areas. My original training was in classic physiology, and flexibility in biophysics gave me an excellent opportunity for a smooth transition to a bit of modernization, bringing in computerized analyses,” Momotani says. “When I attend the Annual Meet ing, I can meet people from diverse areas, giving me an excel

May 2023

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