Tomohisa Hasunuma

Kobe University, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Tomohisa Hasunuma is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of biotechnology and artificial intelligence, whose work is reshaping how biological experiments are conducted and analyzed. His primary research areas include autonomous laboratory systems, high-throughput screening methodologies, and microbial engineering for biosurfactant production. Hasunuma’s most significant contribution is the development of the autonomous lab (ANL) system—a groundbreaking platform that integrates robotics with Bayesian optimization algorithms to autonomously design and execute biotechnology experiments while formulating scientific hypotheses. This innovation, detailed in his 2025 paper (14 citations), promises to dramatically accelerate research cycles and reduce human error in complex biological workflows. Complementing this, his 2024 work (13 citations) introduced a high-throughput method for evaluating hemolytic activity in engineered *Bacillus subtilis* strains, enabling precise measurement of colony and hemolytic zone sizes on blood agar. This technique addresses a critical bottleneck in developing high-yield biosurfactant producers, such as those for surfactin, by replacing cumbersome traditional screening with an accurate, scalable approach. Through these achievements, Hasunuma is driving a paradigm shift toward automated, data-driven biotechnology, making him a key figure in the future of synthetic biology and industrial microbiology.