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.

A person looking at a organ in a cube illustrated by Hiroko Uchida

Research Highlights

Organ-specific design principles, dietary restrictions and longevity, and an alternative to animal models in pre-clinical studies.
Research highlights articles and press releases between December 2023 to May 2024.

パソコンの前に座っている芝井さんはメガネを掛けた男性

What’s Important for Experimental Automation?

This time I talked to Dr. Atsushi Shibai, who works in a laboratory that researches experimental evolution and experimental automation. I previously talked to Dr. Uchida from the same laboratory about her research using medaka fish, but I heard that Dr. Shibai is more of an engineer-minded person…

Vol.16 – 2024 Summer

Vol.16 – 2024 Summer

A car navigation screen?

This is a simulation model of the network of chemical reactions (metabolic pathways) occurring within the cell visualized in a virtual reality platform. The metaverse platform allows multiple researchers to analyze and build models collaboratively within a virtual space.

萩原チームリーダーと、5人のチームメンバーが、各国料理のお弁当を広げている

Human Biomimetic System RIKEN Hakubi Research Team

This time we hear from RIKEN Hakubi Team Leader Masaya Hagiwara, who leads the Human Biomimetic System RIKEN Hakubi Research Team that joined the RIKEN BDR in April 2023, about his laboratory.

木造の実験棟の中に白い機械が設置してある。機械には木製のはしごがついている。

4K 1 GHz NMR Spectrometer

West NMR Complex, Yokohama Campus

The NMR spectrometer uses nuclear magnetic resonance phenomenon to study the structure of molecules. A strong static magnetic field of 23.5 Tesla is applied to the center of the cylinder by a superconducting magnet cooled to -269℃.

Vol.15 – 2024 Spring

Vol.15 – 2024 Spring

On the cover! Put the blocks through the holes… This is an experiment showing the technology allowing scientists to build 3D structures of actin, a protein acting as the cell skeleton. When various subcellular-sized shapes (pink) were drawn on a sheet mimicking the cell membrane (blue), actin (green) was self-assembled into pillars with maintaining the […]

Dengue viral proteins replicating RNA

Research Highlights

Rhythms behind zigzag hair growth, capturing atomic picture of dengue virus replication, parasitic worms manipulate the host mantis, organ preservation and human hibernation, and more.
Research highlights articles and press releases between May 2023 to November 2023.

顕微鏡の前に座る小坂本さんはベージュの服を着た女性

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.

キリフィッシュの飼育水槽の前に立つ高橋さんはメガネを掛けた女性

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 […]

ホワイドボードの前に座る福地さんは白いシャツを着た男性

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

スーパーコンピュータの前に立つ大野さん

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.