Professor AKAGAWA Mitsugu
Our research is focused on the health and nutritional functions of food ingredients that contribute to disease prevention and health promotion. To develop new functional foods, we search for and identify new food factors with health functionality, and evaluate their efficacy using cultured cells and experimental animals. We also investigate the molecular mechanism underlying the expression of nutritional and food functionality of a micronutrient, pyrroloquinoline quinone（PQQ）. Our major research topics are as follows.
- Exploration and identification of novel functional food factors that prevent and improve lifestyle-related diseases
- Analysis of the molecular mechanism underlying the expression of health functionality of food factors
- Analysis of the vitamin-like effects of PQQ
- Search for enzymes that require PQQ as a cofactor
