From July 15–18, 2025, at the 4th Joint Meeting on Environmental Chemistry and Substances in Yamagata,
every single one of our three presenters received an award!
And as a special highlight—Misaki Fukamatsu achieved a double victory, following her award at the Japanese Society of Toxicology (JSOT 2025)! 🎉🎉

Award Winners and Their Presentations

🏆 American Chemical Society Award

“Development of an In Silico Target Protein Prediction Method via Comprehensive Molecular Docking on the AlphaFold-Predicted Protein Structure Proteome: A Case Study on Puberulic Acid”
Recipient: Teppei Hayama (Ph.D. student)

🏆 Young Investigator Award, Japanese Society of Environmental Toxicology

“Evaluation of Testicular Toxicity in Mice Exposed to a Nine-Compound Mixture of Linear Perfluoroalkyl Substances at Human Daily-Intake-Equivalent Levels”
Recipient: Wakana Yoshimura (6th-year student)

🏆 Wellington Laboratories Award

“Rodenticidal Effect and Mechanistic Study of Dcha-20, a Novel Lithocholic Acid Derivative with a Unique Mode of Action”
Recipient: Misaki Fukamatsu (6th-year student)
(Double award winner after her Student Poster Award at JSOT 2025!)

Behind the Scenes

But here’s the twist…
Both undergraduates had to leave early for final exams, and Teppei returned to campus for graduate lectures…
So, at the award ceremony, Dr. Takeda had to walk on stage THREE times in a row to accept the awards on their behalf 🥹🥹🥹

One lab, three awards… and zero awardees present—a truly rare sight that definitely stirred some laughter in the venue!

Four Days that Proved Our Lab’s Strength

These achievements reflect the high recognition of our lab’s multi-faceted research approach, including:

• Next-generation technologies (AlphaFold-based structural proteome docking) for target prediction

• Experimental evaluation of low-dose PFAS toxicity

• Mechanistic studies of a novel rodenticide

👏 Hats off to our amazing team for their hard work and bold challenges!
And a big thank you to everyone who supported us along the way.