Bioregulatory Science

Introduction

The aim of this laboratory is to create and produce pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and agrochemicals using microorganisms as biological resources, apply them to naturally occurring pharmaceuticals and foods, and elucidate their mechanisms of efficacy and side effects. 

Studies using chemical methods 
Our main research targets are fungi and mushrooms. Specific research topics are as follows: 

  • Compositional studies of secondary metabolites produced by fungi 
  • Study on the influence of herbal medicinal components on the secondary metabolic productivity of fungi 
  • Study on the creation of useful substances by microbial transformation using fungi 
  • Application of chemical classification (chemotaxonomy) based on differences in fungal metabolites to molecular phylogenetic analysis 
  • Studies using biological methods 

We conduct research mainly on bacteria. Specific research topics are as follows: 

  • Search for soil bacteria that degrade alkaloids 
  • Isolation of genes involved in alkaloid degradation and analysis of regulatory mechanism for gene expression 
  • The relationship between alkaloid-producing plants and rhizosphere bacteria  

What you can acquire in your study 
One of the most important things to acquire at a science-related university is the scientific way of thinking. In our Laboratory, we place the highest priority on the acquisition of the ability to clarify, through research, what the problem that needs to be solved is and to come up with a solution based on scientific arguments. Students can acquire the following knowledge and skills: 

  • Handling of microorganisms including aseptic manipulation 
  • Knowledge of separation and analysis of chemical components (HPLC, LC-MS) and structural analysis (NMR), which are widely used in society 
  • Knowledge and techniques related to structural analysis (NMR) 
  • Gene manipulation and protein expression and purification 

Career paths 
The knowledge and techniques acquired through research projects are useful for work related to reliability assurance at government agencies and companies involved in food and environmental sanitation.

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