Our Mission
Understanding how life builds, uses, and passes on its reaction compartments
How does life bring the right molecules together, organize spaces for chemical reactions, and pass them on to the next generation? We explore this question by studying the pyrenoid in microalgae. This membrane-free compartment supports photosynthesis inside the chloroplast. It forms through "phase separation," a process in which molecules gather into liquid-like droplets. We use the pyrenoid as a model to understand how life creates order.
We track how these reaction compartments change in shape and state, and how they are passed on during cell division. We also study how the CO2-concentrating mechanism collects carbon from water and how this system is controlled. Our goal is to understand not only how molecules come together, but also how they keep working as matter and energy flow through the system. This includes how cells switch gene expression on and off in response to their environment.
By combining molecular and cell biology with physics and AI, we also develop tools to recognize differences between cells and isolate cells of interest. We investigate how environmental changes are linked to the evolutionary gain and loss of reaction compartments. From the lifetime of a cell to the history of evolution, we aim to uncover common principles of life and apply them to improving photosynthesis and designing artificial reaction compartments.
Upcoming Talks and Conference Presentations
Takashi Yamano (Invited talk)
"Machine Learning in Life Science Research"
August 3–5, 2026: Summer Camp of the Transformative Research Area (A) "Establishing the Physics of Learning" — Geometry, Phases, and Generation of Complex Data (Yamanaka Lodge, The University of Tokyo)
Latest News
・Our former lab member Daisuke Shimamura, now a Special Postdoctoral Researcher at RIKEN CSRS, received the 2026 Young Scientist Award from the Botanical Society of Japan. Congratulations! (September 10, 2026)
・Our project, "Establishing the Study of Liquid Organelle Co-evolution," has been selected for funding under the Challenging Research (Exploratory) program. (June 30, 2026)
・Koujiro Matsuo, a third-year PhD student in our lab, received the PCP Poster Award 2026 at the annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. (March 14, 2026)
・Our paper identifying a molecular "brake" that controls the CO2-concentrating mechanism in aquatic photosynthesis has been published in PNAS. (February 13, 2026)
・Our project has been selected for JST's LOTUS Programme for young scientists from India. We will host a student from the University of Hyderabad for one year and carry out a joint Japan–India study on "Modifying Autophagy in Green Algae and Understanding Its Role in Lipid Biosynthesis." (December 16, 2025)
・The research area "Establishing the Biology of pH Responses," in which Takashi Yamano participates as a co-investigator, has been selected for funding under the Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A) program. The area is led by Dr. Oginuma at RIKEN, and our research team is led by Dr. Ma at Okayama University. (February 21, 2025)