Research Theme

Organogenesis is a highly dynamic process in which multicellular behaviors are regulated by mechanisms in multiple scales from molecules and cells to tissues. In vitro generation of functional organ with complex structure is a major challenge of cell biology. Toward this goal, it is a reasonable strategy to recapitulate the ontogeny that is the most efficient and robust process for organogenesis acquired through evolution. Our laboratory aims to clarify molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying organogenesis, and to develop new technologies for in vitro recapitulation, that is, three-dimensional functional organ generation from stem cells. We have previously established efficient three-dimensional cultures for generation of mouse and human ES/iPS cell-derived brain and retinal tissue as well as other ectoderm-derived tissues. Based on our past achievements in 3D tissue formations from pluripotent stem cells, we have been attempting to extend our limit of understanding for self-organization phenomena in neural development and advance the culture technology for generation of more complex tissues from ES/iPS cells in a more robust manner. To do that, we mainly focus on following points.

1) Elucidation of self-organization phenomena in neural development and morphogenesis
2) Development of novel technologies for in vitro formation of functional organ
3) Molecular analysis of species-specific regulation for developmental timing and tissue size determination.