Unveiling the secret of
germline cells

Research Theme

Although individual animals do die, the species are maintained by sexual reproduction which give rises to next generation. Individuals are just like vehicles in which passenger –genetic information– can ride to be inherited to next generation through germline lineage. As such, germline cells are the most important cells to maintain the species. Drosophila melanogaster is one of the ideal model organisms where we can study gametogenesis. How are germline stem cells maintained in the microenvironment, niche? What is the molecular mechanism that controls germline cells to mature into egg and sperm? How germline genomes are safely guarded by non-coding RNA from transposons attacks? Our group has been addressing such molecular mechanisms for better understanding of gametogenesis.

News

We had a farewell and welcome party under the cherry blossoms in full bloom! This is the first party since after COVID19 pandemic, and we had a great time. Xenia is returning to Singapore with the gift from us!! We miss you~.
Xenia Lim (D5/D5) presented her achievement at the doctoral thesis defense and was successfully awarded her doctorate! Congratulations!!
Wakana Isshiki, a D2/D5 student, presented her achievement at the mid-term exam, and successfully received her master’s degree! Congratulations!! Wakana will go on to D3 as a JSPS Research Fellow (DC1)!
Dr. Rippei Hayashi at Australian National University visited our lab, and gave a talk about evolution of piRNA pathway repressing transposons! We also enjoyed the following social gathering!! Thanks so much!!
The MBSJ annual meeting 2022 was held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba! Prof Kai served as a program chair! Many of lab members participated!!
Wakana (D2/D5) and Fengmei (D5/D5) presented their works in FBS colloquium! They gave great talks!!
Our research grant application “A rapid screening method for protein-protein interactions using AI program” was selected by Osaka Univ IDS!
A new research student, Xu Xin, starting in Oct has arrived in Japan! Welcome aboard!!
The manuscript containing the contents of Lin-san‘s PhD thesis was published in bioRxiv!! We will further furbish this and submit to peer review journal soon! https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.12.499660v1

Meeting Attendance

The 45th Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan (Chiba)
2022 EMBO Workshop on PIWI Proteins and piRNAs (Online Conference)
The 44th Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan (Yokohama, Kanagawa)
The 62nd Annual Drosophila Research Conference (Online Conference)
The 43rd Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan (Online Conference)
Asia Pacific Drosophila Research Conference 5 (APDRC5) (IISER Pune, India)
The 42nd Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan (Fukuoka)
RNA Frontier Meeting 2019 (Izu, Shizuoka)
52nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists (Osaka)