Dr. Yoshitaka Fukada is an animal photobiologist and consistently interested in physiological roles and molecular mechanism of light signaling in animals. He is now Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, and he has been Professor of The University of Tokyo, School of Science for 25 years (1995-2021) and Associate Professor of the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for 3 years (1993-1995). He received Ph.D. in 1983 from Kyoto University under the guidance of Prof. Tôru Yoshizawa who won the Finsen Medal in 2000.

Dr. Fukada started his scientific career in Yoshizawa’s lab by finding that metarhodopsin II is a physiologically active intermediate of bovine rhodopsin. In his earlier scientific career, he endeavored to pursue biochemical and molecular biological studies on the retinal photoreception by photoreceptive opsins and the light-signal transduction process mediated by G-protein (transducin) in vertebrate visual cells. Dr. Fukada in Yoshizawa’s lab at Kyoto University purified four kinds of cone photoreceptor opsins for color vision, UV-Violet (SWS1), Blue (SWS2), Green (RH2), and Red (LWS) opsins from the chicken retinas, and cDNA cloning of the four color opsins revealed that the divergence of the color opsin genes are ancient to that of divergence of rhodopsin, a scotopic opsin. After Dr. Fukada started his own lab in 1993, he investigated the gene expression network regulating the four color opsins in the cone visual cells. Also, he found that C-terminal farnesylation of G-protein transducin gamma-subunit and heterogeneous N-terminal fatty-acylation of the alpha-subunit in rod cells are indispensable for the light signaling triggered by rhodopsin. He extended his interests to the photoreception in the pineal gland, and his group identified a new opsin and named it “pinopsin” after pineal opsin as the first example of opsins expressed in extra-retinal tissues of a variety of animal species. Recently, he has been focusing his efforts on revealing cellular and molecular processes important for not only the circadian clock oscillation but also its photic regulation. Together, he devoted to investigation of cellular and molecular processes important for the visual/non-visual transduction in photosensory organs and the photic regulation of the circadian clock.

Dr. Fukada also devoted great effort to academic activities, serving as president of The Photobiology Association of Japan (2015-2016), The Japanese Society for Chronobiology (2017-2022), and The Japanese Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (2020-2021). He also served as vice president of The International Union of Photobiology, Executive Board Member of IUPB (2009-2014), and he was elected as a Member of Science Council of Japan (2018-) to serve for scientific activities of the Japanese government. He has received a number of awards including Yoshida Memorial Award from The Japanese Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (1992), Young Investigator Award from The Japanese Biochemical Society (1992), The Zoological Science Award from the Zoological Society of Japan (2006), The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology from MEXT, Japan (2014), The 3rd PAJ Award from the The Photobiology Association of Japan (2018) and Axelrod Lectureship Award from The European Biological Rhythms Society (2022).

Dr. Yoshitaka Fukada has actively steered his lab toward uncovering new-generation photobiology and his contributions to sensory photobiology for more than 40 years are of the highest caliber.