Genomic EvoDevo Lab

How did Multicellularity Evolve?

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News

2025

• Collaboration project published (May 7, 2025)
  An international collaboration lead by Dr. Iana Kim and Dr. Arnau Sebé-Pedrós was published in Nature. Our group contributed to precisely deciphering the genome of the unicellular holozoan Capsaspora, our model organism. Congratulations Iana & Arnau!
• Aisa finished exchange programme (Mar 28, 2025)
  Aisa finished the student exchange programme, leaving for Indonesia. She has been involved in a new ambitious project of the lab, achieving a great success. Thank you for working with us and sharing a great time in Japan. Good luck!
• Workshop at Tokyo (Mar 22, 2025)
  The PI joined a workshop on Bioarchaeology (supported by Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas A) at the University of Tokyo. We contributed to the presentation by Dr. Nasu from OUS with our urushi project.
• Graduation (Mar 19, 2025)
  Toshihiro Furuya (M2), Rin Etoh (B4), Shion Shimizu (B4), Nanae Takemoto (B4), Ayumu Nomura (B4), and Haruki Yoshida (B4) graduated the University. Thanks for the great 1.5 - 6 (mostly 2) years working together with us!
• Open lecture at Setsunan Univ (Feb 22, 2025)
  The PI gave a talk in an open lecture for public at the newly-established faculty of agriculture of Setsunan University, invited by Ms Yoko Ishizaki and Prof. Takashi Shiina. The lecure was not really a open public lecture, being more like a professional research meeting with a lot of urushi experts.
• Seminar at OUS (Feb 19, 2025)
  A research seminar was held at Okayama University of Science as a part of the Integrative Bioarchaeology project within the framework of Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (Gakujutu-Henkaku). The PI gave a talk about the urushi study.
• Paper on educational ICT published (Feb 17, 2025)
  The PI published a paper entitled "ICT educational tools in the post-COVID era" on Bulletin of Center for University Education, Prefectural University of Hiroshima.
• Presenting master thesis projects (Feb 12, 2025)
  The M2 student Toshihiro Furuya defended the master thesis regarding the Hippo pathway of Creolimax, our unicellular model. He managed to pack a lot of experiments he had done in two years within a 12 minutes presentation and received many encouraging comments and meaningful questions. Congratulations!
• Presenting graduation projects (Feb 5, 2025)
  Rin Etoh, Shion Shimizu, Nanae Takemoto, Ayumu Nomura, and Haruki Yoshida finished the presentations of the graduation projects. We enjoyed a nice atomosphere with a lot of audience. The classic post-presentation party was just fun. The memorable day was embraced with a record-breaking snow fall.

News

2024

• Organising a forum at MBSJ 2024 (Nov 27, 2024)
  The PI co-organised a forum at the 47th annual meeting of Molecular Biology Society Japan, together with Dr. Nakajima (did almost everything) at the university of Tokyo.
• Symposium at Tsukuba Univ (Oct 8, 2024)
  The PI gave a lecture in the 16th symposium on "Discovery, Fusion, Creation of New Knowledge by Multidisciplinary Computational Sciences" at Tsukuba University, invited by Dr. Yuji Inagaki.
• Exchange student arrived (Sep 24, 2024)
  An exchange student Aisa (Jember University, Indonesia) joined the lab. Welcome!
• Evolution meeting at Tokai Univ. (Aug 22, 2024)
  We joined the annual meeting of Evolution Society at Tokai Univ. The M2 student Toshihiro Furuya presented his project. The PI gave a talk on the genetics of urushi tree in a workshop.
• DNA extraction at Kyushu-Univ (Aug 3, 2024)
  As a collaboration within the urushi laqcuer tree project, we visited Dr. Watanabe's lab in Kyushu university. The PhD student Seitaro Denbo and the PI Hiroshi Suga extracted DNA from over 250 samples in the Suzuki collection at Tohoku university, with Dr. Watanabe.
• Review on Ichthyosporeans published (Jul 30, 2024)
  We published a review on the Ichthyosporea on Communications Biology.
• Riho Kodera got the best student award (Jul 19, 2024)
  Riho Kodera (B3) is the awardee of the best student prize of this year. Congratulations!
• Developmental biology meeting (June 19, 2024)
  The PI presented a piece of work done by the PhD student Seitaro Denbo at a workshop in the annual meeting of JSDB. Good science and nice people!
• Review paper published (Apr 22, 2024)
  A review was published on "Saibo (cell)" magazine from Hokuryukan. The PhD students Seitaro Denbo and Ayato Hino are co-authors.
• Presentation on the urushi origin (Feb 19-20, 2024)
  The PI presented the Urushi project first online (19 Feb) and then at Sokendai in Hayama (20 Feb). The meetings were held in slightly different bodies within the Bioarcheaology project started this fiscal year.
• Master thesis presentation by Fuma (Feb 8, 2024)
  Fuma Tanaka presented his master thesis. Tons of experiment conducted by him were hard to be spoken within 20 minutes. Well done!
• Graduation project presentation (Feb 7, 2024)
  The most hectic and emotional day. Aoi Ono, Saki Etoh, Aozora Umemura, Mami Inoue, and Shizuku Tamura presented the graduation projects. They worked hard until the very last moment. Congratulations!

2023

• Bio-archeology seminar (Dec 9, 2023)
  The bio-archeology project organised the first workshop on population genetics using state-of-the-art bioinformatics. The PI, Seitaro Dembo, and Ayato Hino joined.
• Annual meeting of Molecular Biology Society (Dec 7, 2023)
  Toshihiro Furuya (M1), Fuma Tanaka (M1), and Ayato Hino (D2) presented posters at Kobe.
• Softball & BBQ (Oct 26, 2023)
  We organised a softball competition and BBQ events, enjoying a crispy autumn air.
• Book published (Oct 4, 2023)
  Elucidating Jomon-era using genome information - a book in which the PI is a co-author has been published. An article on the univ website is online.
• "Nearly" 10 years anniversary of the lab (Sep 17, 2023)
  The lab held a party celebrating the 10th year since the opening with more than 30 participants including the alumni and the current members. A lab name plate was a beautiful gift!
• Annual meeting of Evolution Society (Aug 31, 2023)
  Fuma Tanaka (M2) gave an oral presentation. Toshihiro Furuya (M1), Ayato Hino (D2), and Seitaro Dembo (D4) presented posters. PI gave a talk on evolution of urushi tree because the students presented everything else;-)
• Open campus (Aug 9, 2023)
  We organised an experiment of DNA extraction for the open campus event. I guess we are as popular as usual!
• The best student award goes to.. (Jul 21, 2023)
  Shion Shimizu (B3) from the lab got awarded by the best student prize of this year. Congratulations!
• Urushi sampling deep at Kyoto (Jul 16, 2023)
  We have completed the sampling of urushi trees for a genetic analysis deep at Kyoto and Hyogo. It was very efficient thanks to Mr. Yamauchi from NPO Tamba Urushi. Ms. Ishizaki and Prof. Shiina from Setsunan Univ.
• Graduation (Mar 17, 2023)
  B4 students Hodata Takishita, Toshihiro Furuya, Kumanao Furuta, Koki Miyake, and Fuko Yagura graduated. The internal party after the ceremony was amusing yet emotional (thanks fo the preparation of B3 students). Good luck!
• Meeting at Okinawa (Feb 18, 2023)
  The PI joined a meeting at Okinawa, organised by Yaponesia project that is going to finish in a month after five years. The PI presented our study on population genetics of urushi trees.
• Graduation project presentation (Feb 8, 2023)
  The day has come (as always). Toshihiro Furuya, Hodaka Takishita, Koki Miyake, Kumanao Furuya, and Fuko Yagura presented the graduation projects. They survived many questions from professors, receiving useful advises as well. Well done folks!
• Lab ski tour despite of thesis deadline (Jan 30, 2023)
  Only 2 days until the deadline of graduation thesis submission, but we do ski when it snows!