Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Contribution Award

From the ornamental plant industry to the large-scale production of staple crops, the use of breeding as a method for creating new plant varieties has a long history in Japan. Dr. Tomoko Abe's research at the Laboratory for Radiation Biology, however, focuses on an approach to plant breeding that is new to both science and industry, and unique to Japan. In her team's approach, new varieties of plants are generated through mutations by exposing seeds and other plant parts to heavy-ion beams generated by accelerating atomic ions using a particle accelerator. Dr. Abe's research team is the first in the world to make use of heavy-ion accelerator technology in this way to generate mutants for plant breeding. The approach boasts significant advantages over other techniques, reducing the time span required for breeding, increasing mutation rates, and offering greater variation in types of mutations.

A high-profile example of the new varieties of plants generated from this method is the Nishina Zao (see Inventions + Breakthroughs), a strain of cherry blossom with pale yellow flowers. Using the RIKEN Ring Cyclotron at the RI Beam Factory (RIBF) in the Nishina Center, Dr. Abe's team, in collaboration with the Japan Flower Culture (JFC) Ishii Farm, induced mutations in cuttings from Gyoikou cherry trees in Yamagata Prefecture, which have a mixture of yellow and green blossoms. Dr. Abe's team is also cooperating with various partners in academia and industry to develop applications for mutation breeding using heavy ion beams in solving global food problems.

Dr. Abe was awarded the Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Contribution Award in 2009. In 2007, the Radiation Biology Team received the Science and Technology Award (Development Division) in the Commendations from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for ‘Development of highly efficient mutagenesis-based breeding technology using high-intensity heavy-ion accelerators’.

For more information, see:

• Creating novel plants using heavy-ion beams (RIKEN Research)
• RNC Laboratory Head Tomoko Abe presented with a 7th Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Contribution Award

2009 MEXT Commendation for Science and Technology

Dr. Benno and his research group at the Center for Intellectual Property Strategies study compositions and functions of the gut microbiota in humans, working toward the development of a technological system to categorize lifestyle-related diseases. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Benno has focused his research on elucidating the complete picture of gut microbiota through the use of DNA analysis, together with conventional culturing methods. His group's work has revealed that there is considerable variation between individuals in the composition of gut microbiota, and in response to large bowel disease. In drawing connections between the gut microbiota and lifestyle-related factors such as diet, his group's goal is to develop approaches to preventive medicine based on analysis of the gut microbiota. "I have been engaged in the gut microbiota research for thirty years, and I have witnessed the field undergo drastic change during the last three years," Dr. Benno said in 2004. "I do not feel that I am overstating the case by saying that we are the ones who have made that change happen."

Dr. Benno was presented the Japanese Society of Veterinary Science Award in 1986 for his research on gut microbiota, and in 2003 he was presented the Japan Society for Culture Collections (JSCC) Award for his work on anaerobic bacteria in the human and animal intestine.

For more information, see:

• Benno Laboratory
• Application of the Particular Human Intestinal Microbiota Profile to Disease Precaution

MEXT Young Scientists’ Prize

With her team at the RIKEN Research Center for Allergy and Immunology, Dr. Sidonia Fagarasan researches the role in mucosal homeostasis of Immunoglobulin A (IgA), the most abundantly produced antibody in mammals and the main antibody found in mucous secretions. Until recently, IgA was viewed as having a single function, protecting the body from invading pathogens through secretions across the mucous membrane surfaces of gut-associated lymphoid tissues (GALT). Dr. Fagarasan and her team have challenged this perception by showing that IgA plays a more subtle yet equally crucial role in mucosal homeostasis, controlling the composition of bacteria in the gut.

The path leading Dr. Fagarasan from her native Romania to her research on IgA’s role in mucosal homeostasis started with her work on the team of renowned immunologist Dr. Tasuku Honjo at the Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine. As part of the team, she was involved in the landmark discovery, in 2000, that a protein called activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) regulates genetic alterations of B cells which enable them to produce other Ig-isotype antibodies. Following her move to RIKEN as head of RIKEN’s Laboratory for Mucosal Immunity, Dr. Fagarasan focused her attention on the regulatory pathways leading to IgA synthesis in the gut, and the role of IgA in mucosal homeostasis. Her research team demonstrated that mice lacking the IgA antibody house as many as 100 times more anaerobic bacteria in the small intestine, and that most of these uncultured anaerobic bacteria over-stimulate the body’s immune system, thus establishing the IgA antibodies’ homeostatic role. Recently, her team also revealed new aspects of how the immune system, by adapting and converting its cells, is able to maintain a delicate balance in the intestine.

Dr. Fagarasan was awarded the MEXT Young Scientists’ Prize in 2005.

For more information, see:

• Laboratory for Mucosal Immunity
• Happy accidents led to RIKEN (RIKEN Research)

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Prize

The main research focus of Dr. Yasunori Hayashi's group is on uncovering the molecular mechanisms of long-term potentiation (LTP), a cellular model of learning and memory whose precise functioning remains unclear. Using a combination of novel techniques, Dr. Hayashi's group has explored signalling of AMPA, the most commonly found receptor in the nervous system and one that has been shown to play an integral role in the LTP process. To explain the LTP mechanism, his group has proposed a novel hypothesis that rests on the idea that LTP induction recruits new AMPA-type glutamate receptor molecules to the synapse, thereby increasing the postsynaptic sensitivity to released glutamate. In addition to explaining the molecular mechanisms of LTP, this work also puts to an end the long-term debate as to the site of the persistent change in the synaptic plasticity mediating certain forms of learning and memory.

Dr. Hayashi is currently a principal investigator at RIKEN's Brain Science Institute. He won the JSPS prize in FY2007, and was also awarded the Japan Academy Medal.

For more information, see:

• Hayashi Research Group
• Wikipedia entry on Yasunori Hiyashi

The Crafoord Prize

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body’s immune system mounts a defensive response against its own cells and tissues, with painful and sometimes life-threatening consequences. While the molecular mechanisms behind autoimmune diseases remain poorly understood, the production of cytokines, a category of signaling molecules, is known to be intricately involved. With his group at the RIKEN Center for Allergy and Immunology’s Laboratory for Cytokine Signaling, Dr. Toshio Hirano studies signal transduction in the immune system with the aim of further clarifying the details of this involvement. His seminal research on interleukin-6 (IL-6), a cytokine that has been shown to play a central role in mobilizing immune response against bacteria, viruses and other microbes, was instrumental in opening up new areas of research on autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases. More recently, Dr. Hirano’s group has focused on clarifying the function that heavy metal cations such as Zinc play in intracellular signaling, as well as in development, regenerative medicine, immunity, allergy and cancer metasatasis.

In 2009, Dr. Hirano was jointly awarded the prestigious Crafoord Prize with Dr. Charles Dinarello and Dr. Tadamitsu Kishimoto, for “pioneering work to isolate interleukins, determine their properties and explore their role in the onset of inflammatory diseases”. He was also awarded the Emperor's Purple Ribbon Medal (2006), the Medical Award of The Japan Medical Association (2005), the Fujihara Prize (2004) and the Sandoz Prize for Clinical Immunology (1992) (renamed the Novartis Prize).

For more information, see:

• Laboratory for Cytokine Signaling
• Osaka University Toshio Hirano Laboratory
• Crafoord Prize

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Prize

Forming a group of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table, the rare earth metals possess unique chemical and physical properties that make them essential industrial materials. Despite this fact, chemists rarely venture to explore the use of such metals as catalysts due to their highly air- and moisture-sensitive nature, which makes it difficult to handle them in their most reactive form. Dr. Zhaomin Hou, Chief Scientist at the Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory of the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, is one of the pioneers in the study of the fundamental chemistry of rare earth metals, as well as in the development of novel catalysts from these untapped elements. “The study of rare earth metals lags far behind other metals,” Dr. Hou points out. “I found it interesting because few people are researching them, and so many things have yet to be uncovered.”

When he first arrived in Japan from China in 1983, Dr. Hou joined a laboratory at Kyushu University, famous for its research in applied chemistry. He joined RIKEN in 1993, and in 2002 was appointed Chief Scientist at the Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory. Over this time, Dr. Hou has earned a world-class reputation for his pioneering work in the development of polymerization catalysts and other novel compounds from rare earth metals. By appropriately combining organic molecules with rare earth metal ions, his laboratory has recently developed a number of new catalysts that exhibit excellent activity and selectivity for the polymerization and copolymerization of a wide range of olefins (synthetic fibers). The polymer materials produced possess novel physical, mechanical and optical properties useful for practical applications.

Dr. Hou was awarded the JSPS prize in FY2006. He is also a recipient of the MEXT Commendation for Science and Technology Award (2008) and the Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award (2007).

For more information, see:

• Tapping the potential of fragile metals (RIKEN Research)
• Organometallic Chemistry Laboratory

The L'ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science

The growth and repair of bones in the body is governed by two basic processes: bone formation, carried out by osteoblast cells, and bone removal (breakdown), carried out by osteoclast cells. Given its role in destroying bone structure, overproduction of osteoclasts can have serious consequences for skeletal integrity, leading to degenerative bone diseases and other bone conditions. The research of Dr. Yukiko Kuroda, research scientist at Dr. Katsuhiko Mikoshiba’s Laboratory for Developmental Neurobiology at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, addresses the roots of osteoclast production by focusing on intracellular calcium signaling during osteoclast differentiation from precursor cells.

Fluctuations in intracellular calcium levels leading to osteoclast differentiation are induced by RANKL (Receptor Activator for Nuclear Factor κ B Ligand), a protein that plays a key role in bone metabolism. Dr. Kuroda’s research has shown that a specific subclass of IP₃ receptors (IP₃Rs), important regulators of cellular calcium trafficking, is directly involved in mediating RANKL-induced calcium oscillation. In a surprising and revealing finding, she and Dr. Mikoshiba also demonstrated that IP₃R-deficient precursor cells, which lack the capacity to induce calcium oscillation, nonetheless produce osteoclasts, through an unexpected, parallel development pathway.“Before our report, it had been believed that RANKL-induced calcium oscillation [is] essential for osteoclast differentiation,” Dr. Kuroda and Dr. Mikoshiba explained. “We have demonstrated for the first time the existence of calcium oscillation-independent osteoclastogenesis.”

Dr. Kuroda was one of five winners of the L'ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2007 for her work on uncovering the role of IP₃ receptors and discovery of the new osteoclast development pathway.

Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Contribution Award

The question of how eukaryotic cells sort and transport proteins revolves on the operation of an organelle known as the Golgi apparatus. Made up of flattened membrane-bound stacks (cisternae) that modify cargo proteins that travel through them, the Golgi apparatus sorts and delivers a wide assortment of proteins fundamental to the functioning and communication of cells and organisms. The transport mechanism at the center of this sorting process has long remained a mystery, sparking a heated debate among members of the research community.

The research of Dr. Akihiko Nakano and his team at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute's Molecular Membrane Biology Laboratory achieved a major breakthrough in clarifying the functioning of this transport mechanism. With specially-designed live-imaging technology, Dr. Nakano's team was able to track weakly florescent signals in living cells, detecting and recording the motion of fluorescently labeled proteins traveling through the Golgi apparatus of yeast cells. Their findings have confirmed that cisternae change the distribution of resident membrane proteins, as predicted by the cisternal maturation model, one of two models describing protein transport in the Golgi apparatus. “In the future, we would like to use our technology to examine the dynamic events of how proteins are trafficked and sorted within cells,” Dr. Nakano has said.

Dr. Nakano was awarded the Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Contribution Award in 2006.

For more information, see:

• How cells customize compounds (RIKEN Research)
• 6th Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration Contribution Award to ASI Chief Scientist Akihiko Nakano

2009 MEXT Commendation for Science and Technology

Dr. Yoshiki Sasai's research at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology focuses on unraveling the mystery of brain development: how the most complex biological organ that exists in the world today develops from what starts as a nondescript clumb of cells in the embryo. Combined with advances in embryonic stem cell research, an understanding of how this process takes place could one day make possible the in vitro engineering of functional, transplantable nervous tissue.

With his team, Dr. Sasai uses the African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, as a model to conduct basic research on neural development. His team has succeeded in inducing the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into a range of neuronal cell types, and in inducing cortical cells from mouse and human ES cells. In 2008, Dr. Sasai's group developed a new cell culture method called serum-free culture of embryoid body-like aggregates for quick aggregation (SFEBq), and gained widespread recognition for the in vitro generation of the four-layered structure, seen in the embryonic cortex, from mouse ES cells.

Dr. Sasai has also received the 10th Anniversary Award of the Human Frontier Science Program Organization in 1999. In June, 2009, he also received the Gold Medal Prize by the Tokyo Techno Forum21 for “being the first to successfully generate the laminar cerebral cortical structure from human embryonic stem (ES) cells.”

For more information, see:

• Rebuilding the brain (RIKEN Research)
• CDB Group Director Yoshiki Sasai receives Gold Medal Prize

2009 MEXT Commendation for Science and Technology

As Chief Scientist at the Chemical Dynamics Laboratory of the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Dr. Toshinori Suzuki's research focuses on visualizing the elusive mechanisms that underly chemical reactions. Understanding the dynamics of such reactions, which occur on timescales as short as 10 femtoseconds and on spatial scales of only a nanometer, is a formidable challenge even for modern chemists. With their research work, Dr. Suzuki's team strives to bring out such dynamics using the method of 'crossed molecular beam scattering imaging', which enables the observation of both molecular rotation and vibration, quantities not previously measurable using conventional scattering techniques. His research team has also developed an ‘ultrafast photo-electron imaging’ technique, which enables one to track, in real time, the motion of electrons caused by chemical reactions.

Besides the Commendation for Science and Technology, Dr. Suzuki has also been awarded the Broida Award from the international symposium on free radicals, the JSPS Award, and the IBM Science Award.

For more information, see:

• Seeing the essence of chemical reactions (RIKEN Research)
• Chemistry gets a new set of eyes (RIKEN Research)

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Prize

Understanding how molecules change in chemical reactions is one of the most important tasks in the field of molecular chemistry. Dr. Tahei Tahara, who joined RIKEN as Chief Scientist of the Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory of the Advanced Science Institute in 2001, is at the forefront of research in this area. Using ultrafast laser light to measure molecular electronic states and vibrations, Dr. Tahara's team is able to probe the movements of short-lived, excited-state molecules, dynamics which had remained out of reach to earlier methods. His team also employs their considerable expertise in ultrafast lasers to develop new types of interface-selective nonlinear spectroscopy. Their recently-developed method of electronic sum-frequency generation (ESFG) spectroscopy realizes, with great speed, selective and precise measurements of the electronic spectrum at the interface between materials.

Dr. Tahara was awarded the JSPS Prize in FY2005, and also received the IBM Japan Award in 2004 for his development of a technique to probe details of structure and dynamics of molecules.

For more information, see:

• Tahara Group
• Molecular Spectroscopy Laboratory
• Seeing molecules move in real time (RIKEN Research)

Japan Prize

Dr. Masatoshi Takeichi’s research focuses on uncovering the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which animal cells are organized into precisely ordered multicellular structures such as tissues and neural networks. He is best known for his discovery of cadherins (calcium dependent adhesion molecules), proteins that play a fundamental role in intercellular recognition and adhesion.

Dr. Takeichi was the first to recognize that cell-cell adhesion involves two distinct mechanisms—calcium-dependent and calcium-independent—and to identify molecular bases for each. He named the molecule responsible for calcium-dependent adhesion ‘cadherin,’ and went on to identify a group of related molecules, now known to form the core of what are collectively referred to as the cadherin family. These molecules are differentially expressed by tissue type and developmental stage, and function by allowing cells with compatible cadherins to recognize and bind to each other.

The discovery of the cadherin family was a breakthrough in cell biology that allowed scientists to investigate in great detail the mechanisms by which complex multicellular structures form and hold together. Dr. Takeichi was awarded the Japan Prize in 2005 in recognition of this discovery, one which he shared with Dr. Erkki Ruoslahti of the Burnham Institute (La Jolla, California, USA), who has also made fundamental advances in the study of cell adhesion and cancer biology.

Dr. Takeichi has also been awarded the Keio Medical Science Prize (2001), and in 2007, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (USA) as a foreign associate member, in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Order of Culture

Professor Susumu Tonegawa is director of RIKEN's Brain Science Institute and the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at MIT. Prior to taking on the directorship of BSI in April 2009, he was engaged in joint research with BSI for over ten years in the area of memory and learning. Most recently, he has achieved internationally acclaimed results in developing techniques in the reversible silencing of specific neuronal circuits in the hippocampus of mice.

In recognition of his achievements, RIKEN named Dr. Tonegawa the inaugural RIKEN Fellow in 2007. Dr. Tonegawa is also a recipient of the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Order of Culture "Bunkakunsho" from the Emperor of Japan, the Bristol Myers Squibb Prize in Cancer Research, the Albert and Mary Lasker Award, and the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The Simon Memorial Prize

By harnessing the quantum mechanical properties of atoms and molecules, quantum computation offers the promise of exponential increases in processing power and computational speed. Progress toward the implementation of a physical quantum computer, however, is still at a very early stage, despite attracting a great deal of attention in recent years. Dr. Jaw-Shen Tsai and his Macroscopic Quantum Coherence Team at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute are at the forefront of research efforts to take quantum computation from the realm of pure theory to the world of real physics.

Dr. Tsai’s interest in quantum computing was sparked by his research on the Josephson junction, a device that makes use of the electron tunneling effect to enable switching from one electrical state to another on extraordinarily short time scales. With his collaborator in the Macroscopic Quantum Coherence Team Dr. Yasunobu Nakamura, Dr. Tsai demonstrated coherent control in such devices in 1999, leading to pioneering work on superconducting solid state qubits (quantum bits), the elementary unit of memory in the quantum computer. His team has created an operational 2-qubit quantum logic gate, the first such gate to be implemented as a solid-state system, on which they were able to execute an efficient single-shot measurement.

Dr. Tsai was awarded the 2008 Simon Memorial Prize with Dr. Nakamura for his contribution to the development of low temperature physics.

For more information, see:

• Macroscopic Quantum Coherence Team
• Jaw-Shen and Yoshiko Tsai (Japan Times)
  
• NEC Researchers Awarded with the 2008 Simon Memorial Prize

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Prize

As leader of RIKEN's Laboratory for Genetic Reprogramming, Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama's research focuses on the cloning of adult mouse somatic cells as a research model for investigating the biology of mammalian cloning. Dr. Wakayama's team achieved international acclaim in 2008 with their success in 'resurrecting' as clones mice that had been dead and frozen for 16 years. The result hints at the possibility of cloning other animals that have long been extinct but whose frozen bodies still exist, such as mammoths. "It remains to be shown whether nuclei can be collected from whole bodies frozen without cryoprotectants and whether they will be viable for use in generating offspring following nuclear transfer," Dr Wakayama's team wrote.

For more information, see:

• Teruhiko Wakayama wins JSPS Prize
• Dr Teruhiko Wakayama brings frozen mice back to life as clones