BDR Times

BDRTimes.riken.jp is RIKEN BDR’s online news site for people who are interested in science. It features recent progress in BDR’s research, interviews of BDR researchers, and overview of outreach events.

The Desire to Explain Nutrition Properly

The Desire to Explain Nutrition Properly

Dr. Chika Takahashi who talked about her research using the short-lived killifish, introduced me to Dr. Hina Kosakamoto, who works with the fruit fly. As the name of the lab she works in includes the words ‘nutritional biology,’ I went to the interview hoping that I would be able to learn something that might be useful for dieting.

夜の神戸大橋。赤い橋がライトアップされている。

Kobe Bridge and Portopia Bridge

Chuo Ward, Kobe

Kobe’s city center of Sannomiya is connected to the man-made Port Island by two bridges and one undersea tunnel. This photo of the illuminated Kobe Bridge was taken from the Port Island side.

A new model organism for lifespan research

A new model organism for lifespan research

This time, I sat down to talk to Dr. Chika Takahashi in the Laboratory for Molecular Biology of Aging, the same lab as Dr. Uno, who I previously interviewed about his research on lifespan using C. elegans. The theme this time also seems to be related to lifespan but I heard that she is using […]

Vol.14 – 2023 Autumn

Vol.14 – 2023 Autumn

On the cover! Rain clouds detected by radar? This is an image of proteins regulating genes in the cell nucleus. In an effort to reveal the behavior of genes in the nucleus of ES cells in two different states, the proteins, which are moving too rapidly to be captured by a camera, are manipulated to […]

建物内に3台のクライオ電子顕微鏡、一番手前の1台は扉が開いて中が見えている

High-end 300kV cryo-electron microscope

Central NMR Complex, Yokohama Campus

The three cryo-electron microscopes (cryo-EMs) housed in the Central NMR Complex, aligned in a row. On the far right with its enclosure doors open is the latest, state-of-the-art cryo-EM that is equipped with an electron emission gun with an acceleration voltage of up to 300kV.

Vol.13 – Summer 2023

Vol.13 – Summer 2023

On the cover! A six-winged pinwheel? This is the transcription termination factor Rho. It is a ring-shaped structure consisting of a hexamer that forms a tunnel in the center for the RNA (magenta) to pass through. When Rho attaches to the RNA polymerase (white and gray) during transcription, it uses this tunnel to pull the […]

A physicist contemplating the origins of living things

A physicist contemplating the origins of living things

Dr. Yousuke Ohno, who I previously interviewed about MDGRAPE, had told me that he had been intrigued by a recent Japanese press release suggesting that amino acids could be generated even without nitrogen, so I went straight to the horse’s mouth and talked to Dr. Tomonori Fukuchi who was involved in that study. I was […]

View from the eighth floor of the Integrated Innovation Building

View from the eighth floor of the Integrated Innovation Building

Kobe Campus

The sunrise over Osaka Bay viewed from the east side of the top floor of the RIKEN Integrated Innovation Building (IIB), which is located on Port Island, an artificial island. Silhouettes of the gantry cranes along the wharf emerging in the morning sun.

左右決定の謎を解き明かすマウス初期胚にある窪み(ノード)

Research Highlights

Research highlights articles and press releases between November 2022 to April 2023

Taking on the world with a unique computer

Taking on the world with a unique computer

This time we have Dr. Yousuke Ohno, who works on the design of MDGRAPE, a computer specialized for running molecular dynamics simulations. If you really think about it, the development of MDGRAPE has been going on since before 1990, which was around the time when Windows 3.1 was finally released. Looking back now, isn’t it […]

a cover picture of BDR Times vol 12

Vol.12 – Winter 2023

A blue sun?
This is an aggregate of neural stem cells and the outflow of these cells from the aggregate. At high densities, neural stem cells align their elongated shapes and radially crawl out of the aggregate. Their weak clockwise cell motility becomes accentuated at the collective migration level, resulting in the appearance of a spiral formation that is visible to the naked eye.

りけんキッズよこはまの入口。扉が開いている。

RIKEN Kids Yokohama

Yokohama Campus

A childcare facility situated on RIKEN premises specifically for use by RIKEN employees. Both research and administrative staff are eligible to use the childcare services.

食餌中のチロシン欠乏によるショウジョウバエ幼虫での栄養欠乏応答の写真

Research Highlights

How to regulate protein intake, cells that sense mechanical forces, the possibility of regenerative medicine for the heart, and hormones make fathers.—Research highlights articles and press releases between July and October 2022.

オポッサムの心臓

Vol.11 – Summer 2022

A maze and a cave?
This is a heart of a newborn opossum (red). Opossums are marsupials, like kangaroos. Their hearts retain the ability to regenerate for at least two weeks after birth, which is the longest reported to date in mammals. The green cells are those currently proliferating.

photo of lab members

Laboratory for Neuroepitranscriptomics

The Laboratory for Neuroepitranscriptomics was launched in April 2021 and is headed by Team Leader Dan Ohtan Wang. Originally from China, Dr. Wang first came to Japan as a high school student on a short-term exchange program, and then later returned to attend the Tokyo Institute of Technology for her undergraduate and …

細胞の暗黒死

Research Highlights

Robotic AI, cell death in darkness, molecular pumps and receptors, microbiota and Palaeospondylus. Research highlights articles and press releases between March 2022 to June 2022

A path in Osaka Campus

A path lined with azaleas

Osaka Campus

The Quantitative Biology Buildings consist of two buildings, A and B, between which there is a greenery-filled courtyard. The path winding through the courtyard is adorned with hedges of azaleas.

The Marvels of Shapes Revealed by Mathematics

The Marvels of Shapes Revealed by Mathematics

The person who I interviewed this time is Dr. Daisuke Ohtsuka, who works in the Laboratory for Developmental Morphogeometry, one laboratory at the BDR that is headed by a team leader with a non-biology background. I thought our conversation might include a lot of references to numbers and mathematical formulas, but as Dr. Ohtsuka himself […]

研究室メンバーの集合写真

Laboratory for Nutritional Biology

Team Leader Fumiaki Obata joined RIKEN BDR in April 2021 from his former post at The University of Tokyo to lead the new Laboratory for Nutritional Biology. He first began working with fruit flies,

View from the seventh floor of the Developmental Biology Building

View from the seventh floor of the Developmental Biology Building

The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge connects the Honshu mainland (right) to Awaji Island (left) and is located across the sea approximately 18 km away from the Kobe Campus. At 3,911 meters long, it is the second longest suspension bridge in the world. The cape in the foreground extending from the right is where the ancient port of Kobe, Owada no tomari, is said to have been located.

ES細胞由来の網膜組織の移植例写真

Research Highlights

Research highlights articles and press releases between November 2021 to February 2022.

Vol.10 – Spring 2022

Vol.10 – Spring 2022

On the cover: A growing baby corn? This is an electron microscope image of an olfactory sensillum found on the head of a fruit fly. Nanometer-sized (one-millionth of a millimeter) odorant molecules can pass through tiny pores (nanopores) on the sensillum surface to stimulate the nerves inside for detecting odors. In contrast, micrometer-sized (one-thousandth of […]

八木研究員

Approaching the Origin of Life with Structural Biology

It has been a while since I last talked to a structural biology researcher. I know that they use instruments like nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers to determine the structure of proteins, but I was very excited to be able to hear the story of what happens after the structure is determined as it sounded […]

Molecular structure of proteins

Vol. 09 – Winter 2022

Light blue hammock?
This is a graphic model of the three-dimensional structure of the DOCK-ELMO-Rac protein complex. DOCK (cyan) is involved in cell movement and maturation. The biological activities in the body are maintained by the binding and unbinding of proteins to other proteins.

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