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2025.11.06
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[College of Science and Engineering Engineering] 60th Anniversary Commemoration Event for the Faculty of Science College of Science and Engineering: Lecture by Dr. Ronald Vale, "Impact of AI on Biology Research and Education"
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Ronald Bael (Janelia Research Campus, USA), the discoverer of the molecular motor protein kinesin and a remarkable researcher in the fields of cell biology and molecular biology, as a visiting professor in the Faculty of College of Science and Engineering from the end of October 2025. To commemorate this occasion, on Thursday, October 30, 2025, we held a lecture entitled "The Impact of AI on Life Science Research and Education" at the Honda Memorial International Conference Hall on Aoyama Campus, as part of the 60th anniversary celebration of College of Science and Engineering and Engineering, for graduate students, faculty members, and researchers from both within and outside the university.
Lecture by Dr. Ronald Baal
In his lecture, Dr. Bael presented his research on "transport control by molecular motor proteins" as a concrete example of how AI has led to new discoveries. Molecular motors involved in intracellular transport include kinesin and dynein, proteins that move in opposite directions. While the mechanisms of their individual movements have been well understood, the detailed mechanism by which these two opposing molecular motors control the direction in which cargo moves within a cell remained unknown. Dr. Bael focused on mitochondrial transport and hypothesized that TRAK, an adapter protein that binds kinesin and dynein to mitochondria, might be involved in transport control. Using AlphaFold2, an AI-based structure prediction tool, he estimated the structure of the TRAK protein, formulated a hypothesis based on the estimated structure, and experimentally verified it. This approach revealed a completely new mechanism of transport control. Dr. Bael shared specific anecdotes about the process, including how he selected the optimal approach and how he dealt with unexpected results. Dr. Bale also emphasized that now that AI-powered structural prediction tools are easily accessible to everyone, the possibilities of research will expand through the use of AI, and knowledge of structural analysis will be essential to utilize it.
Dr. Baale has also made significant contributions to biology education, and at the end of his lecture, he introduced some of the content he has created. He has worked hard to launch platforms that make it easy to access cutting-edge biological findings, such as iBiology, which collects videos in which leading researchers explain their fields, and XBio, in which the discoverers themselves explain the process leading to important biological discoveries using abundant images.
Afterward, numerous questions were asked by faculty members and graduate students from both within and outside Japan, and Dr. Bael answered each one carefully. At the end of the Q&A session, he gave a message to young researchers, and the 1.5-hour lecture concluded. After the lecture, a long line formed of graduate students and young researchers wanting to speak with Dr. Bael, and the informal discussion continued for another 1.5 hours.