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Strucure and Function Analysis of Biomolecules(Chemistry)

Harada KazuoAssociate professor

My research topics are herbal/traditional Japanese medicines and forensic toxicology based on analytical chemistry and informatics. My core competence is to develop sample preparation/analytical methods according to objective of study, target analytes and specimen, conduct method validation and apply multivariate analysis to obtained data. I have also conducted many collaborations on pharmacokinetics and monitoring of food/environmental contaminations based on the above technologies. I would like to contribute to the fields of public health through these researches and human resource development.

Research theme

Analysis of mode of actions of herbal/traditional Japanese medicines and quality evaluation of these medicines

Because herbal/traditional Japanese drugs are natural products and contain many chemical components, there are problems such as unclear mechanism of action and difficulty in quality control. I am working on analysis of mode of action derived from multi-components and develop quality evaluation methods based on LC/MS profiling of extracts of herbal/traditional Japanese drugs.

Development of screening and quantitative testing methods of drug/toxic substances

Drug/toxic substance test is important to poisoning diagnosis and cause of death investigation. I am developing easy-to-use screening and quantitative testing methods. In addition, I carry out drug/toxic substance test on cases of poisoning that have occurred in forensic and clinical settings to investigate the cause and analyze the relationship with other symptoms.

Analysis of mechanisms of poisoning and sudden death

There are many cases in which it is not possible to determine whether or not the patient has died of poisoning based on drug/toxic substance tests, and sudden death of unknown cause. I am analyzing the mechanisms of poisoning and sudden death, leading to discover molecular markers that are useful for diagnosis of them.

Representative achievements

Harada, K., Sakamoto, Y., Yoshida, H., Tokugawa, Y., Kuze, H., Tanimoto, R., Higashisaka, K., Takahashi, M., Yang, C, Miyashita, Y., Sugimoto, K., Katada, R., Matsumoto, H., “Drug/toxic substance test in Osaka University” The 68th meeting in Kinki direction, Japanese society of legal medicine, Osaka, Nov., 2021. (in Japanese)

URL:

Harada, K., Ueno, N., Komatsu, K., Hirata, K., “Prediction on metabolic activity of sennoside in extract of Daio-Kanzo-to based on metabolome analysis” The 63th annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Pharmacognosy, Toyama, Sep., 2016. (in Japanese)

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Kazuo Harada “Antibiotic residue in environmental water and fresh food in Vietnam” 79th FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sep, 2019.

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Matsushita, K., Kawashima, R., Hashida, N., Hamano, Y., Harada, K., Higashisaka, K., Baba, K., Sato, S., Huang, W., Matsumoto, H., Hamanaka, T., Quantock, A., J., Nishida, K., “Barium-induced Toxic Anterior Segment Syndrome” Eur. J. Ophthalmol.,

Harada, K., Kurono, Y., Nagasawa, S., Oda, T., Nasu, Y., Wakabayashi, T., Sugimoto, Y., Matsuura, H., Muranaka, S., Hirata, K., Okazawa, A.
‘Enhanced production of nojirimycin via Streptomyces ficellus cultivation using marine broth and inhibitory activity of the culture for seeds of parasitic weeds’ J. Pestic. Sci., 2017, 42, 166-171

Sy, N. V., Harada, K. (Corresponding author), Asayama, M., Warisaya, M., Dung, L. H., Sumimura, Y., Diep, K. T., Ha, L. V., Thang, N. N.., Hoa., T. T., Phu, T. M., Khai, P. N., Phuong, N. T., Tuyen, L. D., Yamamoto, Y., Hirata, K. ‘Residues of 2-hydroxy-3-phenylpyrazine, a degradation product of some -lactam antibiotics, in environmental water in Vietnam’ Chemosphere, 2017, 172, 355-362

Yamaguchi, T., Okihashi, M., Harada, K. (Corresponding author), Uchida, K., Konishi, Y., Kajimura, K., Hirata, K., Yamamoto, Y. ‘Rapid and Easy Multiresidue Method for the Analysis of Antibiotic in Meats by Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry’ J. Agric. Food Chem., 2015, 63, 5133-5140.

Yamaguchi, T., Okihashi, M., Harada, K. (Corresponding author), Konishi, Y., Uchida, K., Do, M., Bui, H., Nguyen, T., Nguyen, P., Chau, V., Dao, K., Nguyen, H., Kajimura, K., Kumeda, Y., Bui, C., Vien, M., Le, N., Hirata, K., Yamamoto, Y. ‘Antibiotic residue monitoring results for pork, chicken, and beef samples in Vietnam in 2012 – 2013’ J. Agric. Food Chem., 2015, 63, 5141-5145.

Harada, K., Ohyama, Y., Tabushi, T., Kobayashi, A., Fukusaki, E. ‘Quantitative analysis of anionic metabolites for Catharanthus roseus by capillary electrophoresis using sulfonated capillary coupled with electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry’ J. Biosci. Bioeng., 2008, 105, 249-260.

Harada, K., Fukusaki, E., Kobayashi, A. ‘Pressure-assisted capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry using combination of polarity reversion and electroosmotic flow for metabolomics anion analysis’ J. Biosci. Bioeng., 2006, 101, 403-409.