Kentaro Ihara

High Energy Accelerator Research Organization

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Kentaro Ihara is a leading figure in structural biology and high-throughput protein crystallography, whose work has fundamentally advanced the automation of macromolecular structure determination. His major contribution lies in the development of the PXS system, an automated large-scale protein-crystallization and monitoring platform that directly addresses one of the most persistent bottlenecks in crystallographic analysis. By integrating parallel subsystems under unified control software, Ihara’s innovation dramatically accelerates the screening and optimization of crystallization conditions, enabling researchers to process hundreds of samples with unprecedented efficiency and reproducibility. This seminal work, published in 2006 and accumulating 66 citations, has become a foundational reference for laboratories seeking to scale up structural genomics projects. Ihara’s achievements have not only streamlined the pipeline from protein production to diffraction-ready crystals but have also paved the way for more ambitious structural studies of complex biological macromolecules. His contributions continue to empower researchers worldwide, making high-throughput structural biology more accessible and impactful than ever before.