Masazumi Fujiwara is a Professor at Okayama University in Japan.
The aim of the Nanochemistry Lab's research is to explore nanometrology by exploiting the novel functionality of inorganic nanomaterials. They are currently investigating nanoscale properties of biological samples and electronic devices, through optical responses of nanodiamonds and metallic nanoparticles.
Their multidisciplinary research involves chemistry, physics, and biology. Diversity is one of the key values of the department both in terms of science and research life.
In his talk 'Nanodiamond quantum thermometers and their applications in biology' Masazumi Fujiwara introduced fluorescent nanodiamonds, which are stable and nontoxic fluorescent probes that are suited to chemical and biological analysis. Recently, they have been intensively studied for quantum applications because their electron-spin-dependent fluorescence can provide a sensitive measurement tool for nanoscale information of magnetic field and temperature. In his talk, Masazumi Fujiwara sproke about his group's effort on the implementation of this technology to temperature measurements in biological analysis (Fujiwara et al., 2020, Oshimi et al., 2022) with some recent results on their novel nanodiamonds (Oshimi et al., arXiv). Furthermore, he discussed potential applications of this technology.
On the 4th June, Sara Mandic a PhD student of the Masazumi Fujiwara’s group, visited the Group of Andrew Plested. After a casual talk while having a fantastic coffee from our coffee container, Andrew gave a little tour of his laboratory facilities and Sara had some time to talk to Andrew as well as some of his group members.
On the 13th June, after a warm introduction by his close collaborator Oliver Benson, Masazumi Fujiwara gave an interesting talk on nanodiamonds and how they can be used to measure magnetic fields and temperature in various organisms and cell types. Masazumi and his postdoc Keisuke Oshimi, as well as Oliver Benson, his PhD student Mike Johannes and his Master's student Zeeshan Nawaz Khan then set off for Edda Klipp's group, where a lively discussion and initial ideas about a possible collaboration ensued. After a relaxed lunch at Due Fratelli and a well-earned coffee in our popular coffee container, we went to the "grüne Amöbe" (‘green amoeba), also known as the Rhoda-Erdmann house. Here we were welcomed by Christian Schmitz-Linneweber, with whom there are already initialplans for a collaboration for the application of nanodiamonds in plants and there was an exciting exchange.
We would like to thank Masazumi for the excellent input and the productive and pleasant exchange and hope that we can stay in contact and possibly work together in the future.