Associate Professor Kiyohiko Igarashi and His Colleagues Achieve a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ Title for Their Research Results

Date of activity: January 27, 2016

Associate Professor Kiyohiko Igarashi and his colleagues in the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences achieved a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for the "Highest Resolution X-ray Crystallography Image of an Enzyme" for their X-ray crystal structure of a cellulose-degrading enzyme (cellulase) deposited in the Protein Data Bank (PDB: http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/home/home.do) on October 14th, 2015. The GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS certificate presentation was carried out on January 27th, 2016.

Cellulases are the key enzymes of the biorefinery that converts cellulosic biomasses such as wood and grass into fuels and chemicals, and their detailed structural information enables us to develop better enzymes. In the ceremony, Mr. Vihag Kulshrestha, the director of Guinness World Records Ltd., presented the official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS certificate to the research team.

Guinness World Records Japan runs a project called "Takumi (Tech) Japan" to encourage world record challenges from Japanese engineers, researchers, and craftspeople. Please click the link below to read an interview with Associate Professor Igarashi on the GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS website (Japanese language only):
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.jp/news/2016/2/highest-resolution-x-ray-crystallography-image-of-an-enzyme

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS (global website):
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS "Takumi (Tech) Japan" Project (Japanese language only):
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.jp/jptakumi2016/jptakumi2016