Graduate School of Biosphere Science > Organization > Molecular and Applied Biosciences Division
| Molecular and Applied Biosciences Division |
The molecular and applied biosciences program provides course work and conducts research to analyze and evaluate the various biofunctions of microorganisms, plants and animals at the molecular and cellular levels, in addition to individual and ecological perspectives. The aim of this program is to utilize biofunctions effectively, searching for novel natural compounds and functional proteins, analyzing the structure of bioactive substances, creating novel bioresources, and molecular breeding for food production and designing environmental detoxification systems using immunological, ecological, and gene cell engineering techniques, as well as the tools of molecular biology, organic chemistry and biochemistry. Furthermore, the purpose of this program is also to provide educational and research programs to develop new biotechnologies, through isolating bioactive substances designed to prevent lifestyle-related diseases such as cancer, evaluating the deleterious effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and investigating the biological mechanism to produce bioactive substances.
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Immunobiology
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The research theme of our laboratory is the elucidation of immune systems using chickens and fish as experimental animals. The use of chicken as an experimental animal has led to many breakthroughs in fields ranging widely from fundamental immunology to applied research.
1) Fundamental research on chicken and fish immune systems and applied research on chicken monoclonal antibodies (Furusawa, S.)
2) Creation and application of transgenic chickens (Horiuchi, H.)
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<Academic Staff>
FURUSAWA Shuichi (Professor)
HORIUCHI Hiroyuki (Professor)
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Chicken germinal center
(Click the picture to enlarge)
Transgenic chicken |
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Enzyme Chemistry
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Our laboratory is interested in the molecular function, chemistry and gene expression of enzymes. In particular, our research mainly focuses on the action mechanism of stress and toxic proteins and antioxidant chemicals from plants and microorganisms.
1) Molecular mechanism of stress response including antioxidant (vitamin C) production in plants and generation of stress-tolerant transgenic plants (Esaka, M.)
2) Molecular mechanism of subcellular transport of proteins and production of useful proteins in plants (Fujikawa, Y.)
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<Academic Staff>
ESAKA Muneharu (Professor)
FUJIKAWA Yukichi (Associate Professor)
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Cancer-killing proteins from
Bacillus thuringiensis
Transgenic plants
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Microbial Biochemistry
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We are focusing on the analyses of cellular and molecular functions of microorganisms and their applications. For this purpose we are pursuing three subjects as follows:
1) A regulatory network for the control of syntheses of various cellular components in yeast (Mizuta, K.)
2) Biological energy systems (Sambongi, Y.)
3) Intracellular trafficking and function of lipids in yeast and their application to lipid production (Funato, K.)
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<Academic Staff>
MIZUTA Keiko (Professor)
SAMBONGI Yoshihiro (Professor)
FUNATO Kouichi (Associate Professor)
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Fluorescence microscopy of actin (red), nuclear DNA (blue), and nucleolar proteins (green) in yeast
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Structure of cytochrome c isolated
from a thermophilic bacterium
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Ecological Biochemistry
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The laboratory of Ecological Biochemistry focuses on chemoecological studies of insects, which aim at promoting the evolutionary understanding of intra- and inter-specific interactions among insects and plants mediated by natural products through chemical, behavioral, and physiological approaches.
1) Research on semiochemicals and chemoreception of insects
(Ômura, H.)
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<Academic Staff>
Ota Shinji (Professor)
OMURA Hisashi (Associate Professor)
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Gustatory sensilla in the proboscis
and legs of nymphalid butterflies
and their electrophysiological responses
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Uptake of pyrrolizidine alkaloids
by danaid butterflies and their
ecological functions
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Biological Chemistry
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The laboratory of Biological Chemistry is studying several important functions of animal or plant cells at the molecular and cellular levels.
1) Mechanism of gene amplification during carcinogenesis and its application to industrial protein production (Shimizu, N.)
2) CO₂, sulfite and nitrite assimilation by plants and its application to environmental preservation (Teshima, K.)
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<Academic Staff>
SHIMIZU Noriaki (Professor)
TESHIMA Keizo (Associate Professor)
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Gene amplification
in human tumor cells
Electron-carrier protein
in photosynthesis
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