Elucidating relationships among the sequences, three dimensional structures, and functional properties of biological macromolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, not only is the primary subject of structural biology, but also is an important focus for the development of industrial applications. Dr. Masatsune Kainosho has, participated in this field by developing novel stable isotope labeling strategies in support of NMR based structural biology. Over his nearly 40 year career, he and his colleagues have developed a variety of innovative isotope-aided NMR methods.

His approaches to labeling amino acids and nucleic acids have taken advantage of microbial fermentations, enzyme catalyzed reactions, and chiral organic syntheses?all areas in which Japan has been leading the world. His innovations and accomplishments have greatly influenced research trends in the worldwide biological NMR community. In particular, his latest contribution, the SAIL (stereo-array isotope labeling) method, is particularly important because it provides a general approach to overcoming longstanding bottlenecks in protein NMR spectroscopy that arise from spin diffusion and exchange broadening effects and have limited the size of biological macromolecules amenable to detailed analysis.
As described above, Dr. Kainosho' s vital scientific contributions have greatly increased the international reputation of NMR research in Japan, and he thus richly deserves the award of Chemical Society of Japan.