2021 Tokyo Tech Challenging Research Award Winners Announced

We have succeeded in producing a thin film of topological semimetal with extremely high crystallinity by developing our own film growth technique, and have paved the way for research of its quantum transport. In particular, we have succeeded in observing the surface conduction and its quantum Hall state in a topological semimetal film for the first time. Furthermore, our recent experiments using the field effect have shown that this surface quantum Hall state connects the front and back surfaces of the thin film. This means that two spatially separated surface orbit states are coupled by a completely new electronic structure called "chiral zero mode". It is expected that new dissipationless conduction along the out-of-plane direction and demonstration of a new quantum correlation phenomenon in two spatially separated planes will be demonstrated by further research.

Finally, I am very honored to receive this award. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the advisers, collaborators, and students, and we deeply appreciate the great support of our university for young researchers.

Exosomes are nanovesicles produced by all cells and were originally recognized as a waste disposal mechanism, however most recently it has become clear that they are involved in intercellular communication. We have reported that cancer cell-derived exosomes are involved in determining the future site of metastasis, and that plasma-derived exosomes can be used for diagnosis and identification of cancer types. Currently, our lab is also interested in investigating how exosomal cargo changes in response to pathological conditions such as autism, Alzheimer's disease, and pregnancy complications, and to elucidate how it relates to disease progression. The research topic that led to this award aims to demonstrate that maternal-derived exosomes are taken up by the fetus, and to elucidate how it influences the fetal brain development.

I am very honored to receive the prestigious Tokyo Tech Challenging Research Award and the Suematsu Challenging Research Award. I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Kondo and the many other professors and laboratory members who have supported my research life.

I am very honored to receive this award. I greatly appreciate the support of Professor Hideki Hosoda, Professor Tomonari Inamura, all of my collaborators, and laboratory members.

Shape memory alloys are functional metallic materials developed in Japan and are used in various applications by taking advantage of their ability to recover their initial shape even when a large strain exceeding the elastic limit is applied. Recently, shape memory alloys have received more and more attention in the field of metal materials. The reason is that the performance of existing Ti-Ni alloys is improving, and the development of new alloys specialized for specific applications such as biomedical, high temperature, and vibration damping is becoming active worldwide. The unique mechanical functionality of shape memory alloys is brought about by a non-diffusional structural phase transformation called the martensitic transformation. In particular, the martensitic transformation induced by external stress plays a central role in the functionality of shape memory alloys; however, its basic understanding is not sufficient. This research aims to establish the basic knowledge by clarifying the stress-induced phase transformation behavior of shape memory alloys by combining various in-situ measurement techniques.