The major long-term goals of this institute are: (1) To develop high-throughput methodologies and devices for quantitative and time-series analyses of metabolites and fluxes within the cell. (2) To construct a computer model of the whole cell based on the large amount of quantitative data generated by (1). (3) To eventually engineer novel genomes and useful microorganisms, based on the computer simulation conducted by (2).

Ongoing research activities mainly focus on multiple aspects of systems biology and bioinformatics and aim, among other things, toward the complete description, understanding, and in silico modeling of the E. coli bacterial cell and other living organisms.  To achieve the above objectives, multidisciplinarity is the key and it is well represented at IAB with groups working on genome and molecular biology, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, metabolic engineering, genome engineering together with computational biology (modeling and simulation), software engineering,  and bioinformatics groups that altogether shape a systems biology-oriented research institute.  Using leading-edge approaches, IAB scientists measure and analyze the cellular activities of organisms and microbes through an integration of various approaches.  Cell functions and activities are mathematically modeled and used for computer simulations.  Among other things, the findings can be applied to areas such as medical care and food and fermentation industry.

Keio University (Shonan Fujisawa Campus) and the Institute for Advanced Biosciences offer students both masters and doctorate degrees in bioinformatics. Both programs are heavily research oriented, and students are deeply involved in ongoing state-of-the-art projects. Undergraduate biology courses and introductory computer courses are available for students with a non-biology or non-computer background. Beyond its strong educational commitment to Keio University students, IAB is also widely promoting the appeal of scientific research, while dispelling some of its mysteries, by introducing advanced bioscience to the local community and to high-school students and venture capitalists from all over Japan. This takes the form of an annual series of lectures for citizens and introductory biological laboratory research work during the popular summer Biocollege and Biofinance guild.

IAB is recognized worldwide as a pioneer in the cell simulation field for the development of its flagship E-Cell system which was awarded the IBM Shared University Research Award in 2003 and was featured in Nature in June 2002.

IAB scientists have developed novel, high-throughput and quantitative CE-MS methods, which can measure thousands of charged metabolites, leading to a patent in Aug 2002. This technology, which has attracted considerable attention around the world, was introduced as an accelerated paper in “Analytical Chemistry” on May 15 2002 and made print and TV news headlines in Japan.  Such leading research activities at  IAB in the field of metabolomics also led to the foundation of  Human Metabolome Technologies Inc. (HMT) in July 2003 based on Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry (CE-MS) technologies that were developed by Masaru Tomita (Director of the Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University) and Tomoyoshi Soga (Associate Professor of Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University). HMT technologies make it possible to measure over 1,600 metabolites in cells and organisms simultaneously and comprehensively, at high speed and with high resolution. HMT provides corporate partners with data about the metabolome measured by CE-MS and other technical tools, which in turn help them develop products more effectively, i.e., pharmaceuticals, functional foods and fermentation processes. HMT has already begun collaborations with several pharmaceutical and food companies for biomarker studies. Information about HMT is available at http://www.humanmetabolome.com/.  

During its still young history, four major international conferences were organized and held at IAB, including the First IECA Conference on Systems Biology of E. coli (2003) and the First Annual Meeting of the Metabolomics Society (2005).

IAB has successfully attracted very significant funding for multiple research projects from major funding organizations including the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) (2002-2006), for bioprocesses and cell modeling, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and its COE network, for biosimulation and systems biology (2003-2008), the Japan Science and Technology Agency (CREST, 2004-2009) for simulation and systems biology,  the Ministry of Health, for cancer biology (2005), as well as from Yamagata prefecture and Tsuruoka city, 2001-2006 and 2006-2011).

Over the past few years, IAB scientists have accumulated several awards including the 1st prize during the 5th Japan Biotechnology Business Competition (2005), the “Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy award in recognition for industry-academia-government collaboration performance" (2004), the IBM Shared University Research Award (2003), and the Nihon Kogyo Shimbunsha Award (2003) during the 17th Leading-edge Technology for Originality and Creativity.