Archive of 2011 News&Events

JASSO Student Award 2011

Ms.Hanae Shimo(Undergraduate student) won JASSO Student Award 2011.

Can computer models based on fundamental laws assist the treatment for cancers?

Over the last decade, scientists have been intensely investigating on TRAIL, a protein released by our immune system, to treat malignant cancers. The benefit of using TRAIL, as compared to conventional chemo therapies, is that it specifically destroys carcinomas without affecting the surrounding normal tissues. This is done through a mechanism known as the programmed cell death or apoptosis. However, the TRAIL-based treatments so far have not been overtly successful as many carcinomas are able to 'cheat' the death signal, triggered by the TRAIL, into a survival signal.

A team of scientists from IAB, Keio University in Japan have formulated a method using a computational model and, with its aid,
predict a novel target that would in return cheat the cancer cells to switch from survival to apoptosis mode. The work of Dr Selvarajoo and colleagues, utilizing the fundamental physical law of conservation, pinpoints an intracellular target, whose removal will reroute most of the resultant signaling flux of TRAIL into a predetermined direction along the caspases-induced death pathway. Their findings are published in Scientific Reports, a newly launched journal of the Nature Publishing Group.

Detail >>

http://www.nature.com/srep/2011/111107/srep00144/full/srep00144.html

31st Capillary electrophoresis Sysmposium

31st Capillary electrophoresis Sysmposium was held at Tsurouka Metabolome Campus, Tsuruoka city on Nov 9-11,2011. 4 keynote lectures, 2 special lectures, 37 general oral presentations and 34 poster sessions presented. About 210 participants from all over Japan gathered to Tsuruoka Japan.

31st Capillary electrophoresis Sysmposium website(Japanese)>>

2011 UK-Japan Workshop on Microbial Systems Biology

2011 UK-Japan Workshop on Microbial Systems Biology was held at Tsurouka Metabolome Campus, Tsuruoka city on Oct 24-25,2011. 25 oral presentations presented. About 50 participants from UK and Japan gathered to Tsuruoka Japan.

This workshop is part of a series initiated by the Strategic International Corporation program funded by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) on the Japanese side and by the British Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) on the UK side.

The workshop series is meant to promote collaborations and interactions between researchers in the two countries (and this year, especially with IAB scientists) active mainly in the field of microbial systems biology, but is not restricted to microbial applications.

2011 UK-Japan Workshop on Microbial Systems Biology website>>

IAB and NISSIN PHARMACEUTICAL CO., ltd. launch joint research for searching biomakers by metabolome analysis

IAB and NISSIN PHARMACEUTICAL CO., ltd. announced that they launch a joint research program to search biomakers by metabolme analysis.

IAB selected to host the Tenth Scientific Meeting of The Metabolomics Society

The Metabolomics Society announced that its Tenth Scientific Meeting will be held at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University in 2014. We are honored to have been selected and look forward to welcoming researchers in the field.(IAB hosted its First Scientific Meeting in 2005.)

The Metabolomics Society website>>

24th Annual Meeting of Japan Society for Archaea

The 24th annual meeting of Japan Society for Archaea was held at Metabolome campus on Sep 2-3, 2011. About 100 participants gathered to Tsuruoka Japan.

Japan Society for Arachaea website >>

IAB started new educational program for local high school students

IAB started new educational program for local high school students called "Special Research Student". Six students from Tsuruoka Minami high school started their research activity at IAB. A welcome ceremony was held on June 15,2011.

IAB appoints twelve local high school students as "RA-U18" research assistants

Twelve local high school students joined on-going cutting edge projects at IAB.(This program was established in May 2009 ) The high school, Tsuruoka Chuo high school (Principal Mr. Yosuke Yamada, total enrollment of 907 students), is located right next to IAB and the twelve students were selected after written examinations and interviews. A welcome ceremony for the students appointed as "RA-U18" research assistants was held on April 25, 2011.

Serum Metabolomics Reveals γ-Glutamyl Dipeptides as Biomarkers for Discrimination among Different Forms of Liver Disease

Prof. Tomoyoshi Soga and Dr.Masahiro Sugimoto of IAB working in collaboration with a group of researchers including Prof. Makoto Suematu of School of Medicine, Keio University , Dr.Takafumi Saito of Department of Gastroenterology, Yamagata University School of Medicine and Dr.Masahi Honma of Department of Pharmacy, The University of Tokyo Hospital, has discovered reliable biomarkers for rapid screening diagnosis of liver diseases.
The article of this discovery will be published in Journal of Hepatology.

http://www.jhep-elsevier.com/article/S0168-8278(11)00159-0/abstract