Koichi Tanaka

Koichi Tanaka is a Japanese chemist who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing soft laser desorption ionization, a method for analyzing large biological molecules by mass spectrometry.

Soft laser desorption: A laser-based ionization method that releases and charges molecules while limiting their fragmentation. Tanaka’s technique used this approach to transfer large molecules into measurable ions.
1987: A calendar year in the Gregorian calendar. Tanaka presented his laser desorption method at a conference in this year.
John B. Fenn: An American chemist who developed electrospray ionization for analyzing large molecules by mass spectrometry. He shared the 2002 Chemistry Nobel for a complementary way to ionize large biomolecules.
Proteomics: The large-scale study of proteins, including their identities, structures, and interactions. Soft ionization methods help mass spectrometry identify proteins in complex samples.
Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization: An ionization method in which a matrix absorbs laser energy and helps release analyte ions. It became the more widely used related technique, distinct from Tanaka’s metal-powder approach.
Cobalt: A chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. Cobalt powder formed part of the light-absorbing sample mixture in Tanaka’s initial method.
Kurt Wüthrich: A Swiss chemist who developed nuclear magnetic resonance methods for determining biomolecular structures. He shared the same Nobel Prize for a different contribution: structural analysis by NMR.
Glycoprotein: A protein with one or more covalently attached carbohydrate groups. Large glycoproteins exemplify the biomolecules Tanaka’s method helped make analyzable.
Mass spectrometry: An analytical technique that measures ions according to their mass-to-charge ratios. Tanaka’s innovation expanded the molecules this broader analytical method could measure.
Glycerol: A colorless, viscous liquid alcohol with three hydroxyl groups. Tanaka’s sample preparation included glycerol alongside cobalt powder and the analyte.

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Kyoto UniversityRelated: He earned his engineering degree at Kyoto University.