Hirohide Saito

Kyoto University, Kyoto University of Education

Papers

Total Citations

475

H-Index

About

Hirohide Saito is a pioneering researcher at the forefront of molecular robotics and RNA nanotechnology, whose work has fundamentally advanced how scientists conceptualize and engineer molecular-scale intelligent systems. His research spans the design of molecular robots—integrated systems combining sensors, logic gates, and actuators capable of autonomous decision-making in response to molecular signals—as well as the construction of functional RNA-protein nanostructures for biomedical applications. Saito played a central role in establishing molecular robotics as a formal scientific discipline, co-founding the Molecular Robotics Research Group and articulating the field's foundational paradigm in his highly cited 2013 paper (141 citations). His landmark 2014 work on molecular robots with sensors and intelligence (205 citations) demonstrated how molecular components could be integrated into coherent, responsive systems. Extending these principles into biomedicine, Saito engineered RNA-protein complexes of varied architectures for imaging and therapeutic use (79 citations), and later developed protein-driven RNA nanodevices capable of controlling mammalian cell fate (50 citations). Collectively, his contributions bridge synthetic biology, nanomedicine, and robotics, offering transformative tools for programmable cellular control.