Measuring Various Things with Mass Spectrometers
Dr. Hina Kosakamoto from whom I learned about nutrition research using fruit flies, introduced me to my next interviewee, Dr. Keiko Masuda. Dr. Masuda is an expert in mass spectrometry. Through this interview series, I’ve heard a lot about genes and cells, but this is the first time mass spectrometry has come up.
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…
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Follow the heart
This time, we have Dr. Akane Sakaguchi from the Kimura Lab. I was surprised to learn that she makes decisions based on her intuition, which was different from what I expected judging from her neat appearance. I guess we could call her an intuitive person. She is doing research on the heart, and the way […]
Everything is Done Manually
Ritsuko Morita, our interviewee this time, was introduced to us by Mika Yoshimura. The interview took place in January 2021, but since she was in the middle of submitting her paper to the journal Nature, we held off on releasing this interview until the paper was published.
Applying Embryology to Dinosaur Studies
We are going to interview Dr. Egawa who is a dinosaur researcher. I can’t wait! But, why dinosaur research not at a museum but at RIKEN? Since RIKEN BDR is a biological research institute, rather than a geological one, I’m curious to find out what kind of research he is doing…
In between Technology and Science
The person I interviewed this time was Dr. Takashi Niwa, who is a member of the Laboratory for Chemical Biology. I assumed his research is chemistry oriented, but at BDR where a lot of the research centers around biology, I wondered what he actually did. So I decided to talk to him to appease my curiosity.
Behind the Scenes of Cutting-edge Research
She’s an expert on bioinformatics who analyzes a huge amount of data from a NGS. Her role does not usually get a lot of attention but as a woman who works in the male dominated field of information systems, she sparks my curiosity more than usual…
Computational Work to See the Structure of DNA
I had an opportunity to casually chat with him the other day about much broader topics including politics, religion and education. But, I wondered how this interview would go…
A New Scheme of Science
We are going to meet Dr. Kanda, who is operating “Maholo,” a robot doing experiments. Although I have seen an online stream of Maholo in action, this is my first time seeing it in person. I wonder what kind of themes we are going to talk about today…
Teamwork of Specialists from Different Fields Propels Biological Research
This interview took place in Dr. Kaneshiro’s lab. I was greeted by the sight of bare lasers and a lot of lenses. I could already sense that this was going to be a different interview than the previous ones…
A Step-by-step Approach to Aging Research
This time, I interview research scientist Masaharu Uno. I heard that his research was on aging using worms. Why worms, I wondered as I made my way to go talk to him.
Research on Hibernation?
Hideki’s interest was piqued when he heard that special postdoctoral researcher Genshiro Sunagawa is conducting research related to hibernation.