Manipulation of life forms at will！
すべての人がウェルビーイング（身体的、精神的、社会的に豊かな状態）な社会の実現は、地球の未来が豊かで満足できるものであるために、次の世紀に向けて必要不可欠な課題です。この中でも特に身体的なウェルビーイングを可能にする技術は、より良い社会を創り出す人々を支えるために重要であると考えています。そこで我々は、がんや糖尿病などの生活習慣病をはじめとするさまざまな疾病の原因となる生命の根源を深く追求し、個別化栄養学による各種疾患制御法の開発に取り組んでいます。
Achieving a society in which all individuals are thriving holistically (physically, mentally, and socially) is a paramount objective for the coming century, in order to secure a thriving and fulfilling future for our world. In the pursuit of such a society, we posit that technology fostering physical wellness holds paramount importance in enabling people to establish a better society. Consequently, we are rigorously investigating the foundational causes of illnesses, including lifestyle-induced diseases such as cancer and diabetes, and striving to develop personalized nutrition solutions for their control.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ― Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. ― Pablo Picasso
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CANCER METABOLISM
Cancer metabolism refers to the mechanism by which cancer cells procure the energy required for growth and spread, differing from the metabolic processes of healthy cells. Comprehending cancer metabolism is crucial for the advancement of therapeutic tactics aimed at curbing or delaying cancer progression.
Our ongoing research endeavors to address the following inquiries:
- What underlies the dissimilar metabolic systems of cancer cells?
- How do cancer cells perceive and communicate metabolic information to their adaptive mechanisms?
- Can novel cancer treatments be devised by disrupting the metabolic systems of cancer cells?
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
The development of biomolecular devices aimed at deliberately manipulating cellular functions has garnered attention in the interdisciplinary field of synthetic biology. To develop useful biomolecular devices, it is necessary to understand how all bio-molecules cooperate to exhibit functionality and to control biomolecules accordingly. Projects underway in this field are as follows:
- Synthetic lethal weapon to combat cancer cells
- Reprogramming devices to perturb spatiotemporal signaling dynamics in a cell
- Reprogramming devices to perturb metabolic systems in a cell
DIGITAL × BIOLOGY
What would change when artificial intelligence (AI) will be comprehensible enough for everyone to use it? We are currently trying to comprehend and manipulate life forms using "digital biology", a concept that integrates life science and AI technology. AI may assist to visualize the substance of life forms that is difficult to observe through naked eyes. Some of the projects that we are currently working on include:
- Digital stain, a label-free imaging technology
- Application of digital biosensor to visualize invisible information
- Unravelling the mechanism underlying intratumor heterogeneity
PERSONALIZED NUTRITION
Diet is a tremendously complex input for human beings, and personalized nutrition means that the function of 37 trillion cells in our body can be precisely regulated by the input information alone. We are currently working with several collaborators to resolve this challenge. Some of the projects that we are currently working on include:
- Visualization of biological information encoded in blood.
- AI nutrition (in collaboration with Prof. Shin-Ichiro Takahashi, Univ. Tokyo).
- Epidemiological studies on food and health.
ORGANELLE CODE
The diversity of morphologies displayed by living entities can be attributed to multiple factors, including the attainment of self-replication, the quintessence of life, and the facilitation of efficient information exchange at the cellular level. Consequently, we posit that morphology is not just a phenotype but also a crucial factor in the organization of life. Our objective is to decipher the biological information embedded in the various morphologies possessed by living beings. The current queries being explored in this regard are:
- Why is the morphology of mitochondria altered in various diseases?
- What happens when the organelle morphology is altered in a cell?