About: Akihiro Kusumi

Akihiro Kusumi (楠見 明弘, Kusumi Akihiro, born October 1952) is a Japanese biologist who proposed an explanation for reduced diffusion speed of lipid and protein molecules in the cell membrane, based on a model of hop diffusion in which lipids are confined to a reduced space, created by a membrane-skeleton-induced compartments. this compartments allow the lipids or proteins freely in a limited region and limiting also the diffusion to other parts of the membrane. Getting to a new compartment is called "hop diffusion" while diffusion in the compartment is allowed by Brownian movement, the compartments of the cell are responsible of the reduced diffusion speed of the lipid or proteins when compared to artificial vesicles.