Recognizing Plant Direct first authors: Ami N. Saito

Ami N. Sait, first author of  Structure-function study of a novel inhibitor of the Casein Kinase 1 family in Arabidopsis thaliana

Current Position: PhD student, Department of Applied Chemistry, Waseda University, Japan

Education: B. Eng. in synthetic organic chemistry, Waseda University, Japan

Non-scientific Interests: eating, drinking, traveling, cycling

Brief bio: I received a bachelor’s degree in synthetic organic chemistry from Waseda University and currently I’m a PhD student. My research is focused on a structure-activity relationship study of the molecules that control the circadian clock of plants at Yamaguchi Lab. In this paper, we have succeeded in making AMI-331, which is a potent CK1 inhibitor and currently is a commercially available chemical from Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd (TCI, product code: A3352). In the near future, I would like to develop more circadian clock modulators and elucidate mechanism of action for plant circadian rhythm using these molecules.