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DEPARTMENT OF Biosystems Science LAB. OF Nano Bioengineering

Professor Hirofumi Shintaku Professor

Hirofumi Shintaku

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The Laboratory of Nano-Bioengineering operates under the direction of Hirofumi Shintaku in collaboration with researchers from various fields, including engineering, life, and medical sciences. We invent innovative tools that dissect complex biology leveraging physics in micro- and nanometer scales, and contribute to society on behalf of humanity.

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Hirofumi Shintaku
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Assistant
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Taikopaul Kaneko
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Program-Specific
Assistant
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Misa Minegishi
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RESEARCH

Invent novel biotechnology leveraging micro/nanoscale mechanics

Electroporation is an approach to transfect cells with foreign molecules by permeabilizing cellular membranes via an electric field. Our laboratory leverages a focused electric field in a micro/nanometer scale to invent new assays for profiling and perturbing cellular states. For instance, our group developed approaches, SINC-seq and NanoSINC-seq, for fractionating cytoplasmic versus nuclear RNAs of single cells by controlling electric fields in a microfluidic system and profiling them with next-generation sequencing. Our approaches demonstrated the integrated analysis of cytoplasmic and nuclear gene expressions of single cells and enabled the investigation of the localization of RNA molecules in subcellular compartments at single-cell resolution. Currently, we are developing new approaches (1) to profile gene expressions of single cells as time series and (2) to jointly profile mechanical phenotype and gene expression in thousands of single cells. We leverage our approaches to dissect the dynamic link between phenotype and gene expression along various biological contexts, including cellular senescence, stemness, and cancer biology.

Precise fractionation of cytoplasmic versus nuclear RNAs by a focused electric field in microscale to analyze RNA localization at single-cell resolution

Selective lysis of cellular membrane and extraction of cytoplasmic components by an electric field control in the micrometer scale. This approach uniquely enables the precise fractionation of cytoplasmic versus nuclear RNAs with length-bias free by leveraging electrophoretic extraction of cytoplasmic RNA. It also enables to dissect the landscape of RNA localization in subcellular compartments, cytoplasm and nucleus, by integrating with next-generation sequencing.