Page 5 - Shimadzu Journal vol.3 Issue2

Insight from Customer

Do you have any requests to us?

Fukusaki:
My request to Shimadzu is the improvement of software for data
analysis and the application data, which is not so excellent at this
moment. We recently established collaborative laboratory, named
Osaka University and Shimadzu Analytical Innovation Laboratory and
we hope that this laboratory will contribute to expand and increase
the application area. Just a personal opinion, Shimadzu should also
put more investment in the instrument design to make it more
attractive.

Why did you choose Professor Fukusaki’s laboratory as
your destination of studying abroad?

Putri:
I was born and raised in Indonesia and moved to Japan in 2004 to
pursue my master and PhD studies in the International Center for
Biotechnology, Osaka University under Prof. Takuya Nihira’s
supervision. My PhD work was about structure elucidation of novel
bioactive compounds from various natural products and I am also a
trained microbiologist. I became interested in the rapidly developing
field of metabolomics and joined Prof. Fukusaki’s laboratory in
January 2011 as a postdoctoral researcher. At that time, there were
various metabolomics projects in Fukusaki lab and I was really
interested to learn more about the application of metabolomics in
various disciplines, including food science, biofuel research and
medical applications. Prof.Fukusaki is one of the leading researchers
in food metabolomics and he has extensive collaborations with many
Japanese companies as well as domestic and international research
institutes and universities. Most importantly, his laboratory is very
open to international students and it gave me a chance to become a Do you have anything to add about both the research
global researcher. In fact, his laboratory is an excellent place for early project and the instruments?
career researchers such as myself to improve their careers.
Fukusaki:
Now I would like to ask Professor Fukusaki. I have heard One of the most important outcomes of this Kopi Luwak research
that you have accepted a lot of students from abroad project is that the method that we develop can be applied as a
and promote their exchange. What are the benefits? standard routine procedure for Kopi Luwak authentication. For this
purpose, we recently published another paper entitled “Application
Fukusaki: of GC/FID-based metabolite fingerprinting for authentication of
Asian palm civet coffee (Kopi Luwak)”. Since GC/FID system is cost
Osaka University aims to establish a global campus, where students effective and is readily available in our research collaborator’s
can learn in an international surroundings and interact with students institute, we hope that this system can be a practical method for
coming from many different countries and cultural background. I authentication in Kopi Luwak industry.
would like to offer students new opportunities for developing their
professional skills in multiple disciplines and communication skills to
take active parts in the international scenes. I also believe that the Could you share your vision of your research and what
international atmosphere in our laboratory will lead to the expansion instrumentation or functions you need to achieve your
of our collaboration network as well as strengthening our leading research goal?
position in the field of metabolomics.
Fukusaki:
Our laboratory’s main core is mass spectrometry-based
metabolomics, with very wide applications in various fields. We
currently have 16 mass spectrometers in our laboratory, including
GC/MS, LC/MS, CE/MS, and SFC/MS. In the near future, our
laboratory will expand the application area of metabolomics and
enrich our toolbox by incorporating NMR technology and imaging
mass spectrometry. We are also continuously making efforts to
maintain a strong pipeline of collaboration with the private sector as
well as domestic and international academic institutions.

It was precious and significant to know what you think
of us. Thank you very much.

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