Keynote Speakers :
“The Role of Cellular-Level Forces in Human Health”
Cindy Reinhart-King, Ph.D.
Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, USA
President, The Biomedical Engineering Society, USA
Personal introduction
Cynthia Reinhart-King is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Research in Engineering at Vanderbilt University. She obtained undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering and Biology at MIT and her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. Her lab’s interests are in cell mechanics in cancer and atherosclerosis. She has won numerous awards for research, teaching, and service. She is President-elect of BMES.
Speakers :
“Introduction to Virtual Human InformatiX Clinics (V-iCliniX) Project”
Thomas N. Sato, Ph.D.
Director, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Professor, V-iCliniX, Nara Medical University
Tom is an established scientist who has been listed among the top 1% most cited authors for journals in Molecular Biology and Genetics. He made a seminal-discovery of vascular endothelial-specific receptors, Tie1 and Tie2. In a series of collaborations with Regeneron scientists, he uncovered physiological functions of angiopoietins, ligands for Tie2. Most recently, he is studying inter-organ communications at the systems and organismal levels and their roles in human diseases. He is also an accomplished triathlete at the Ironman distance.
“Salivary proline-rich low complexity proteins and phosphorus homeostasis”
Kyoji Urayama, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
My research backgrounds are pharmacology, cardiology, molecular and cellular biology, and phenotype analysis of genetically mutated mice. Currently I am interested in and engaged in the studies combining experimental and bioinformatics approaches to decipher multi-organ crosstalk mechanisms in health and diseases.
“Latent disease similarities and therapeutic repurposing possibilities uncovered by multi-modal generative topic modeling of human diseases”
Satoshi Kozawa, Ph.D.
Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
I studied statistical machine learning, mainly Bayesian statistics, and applied it to biological problems in graduate school. I am currently working on biological/medical problems using various information science approaches.
“Towards the identification of molecular/cellular/organ check-points of organismal life and death”
Kengo Tejima, Ph.D.
Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
I studied molecular biology, especially mycological biofilms, in graduate school. The biofilm study got me fascinated by the complex but sophisticated cellular systems. During the course of this graduate study, I have developed further interest in biological networks such as inter-organ/cellular gene networks. Hence, I am currently engaged in the study to decode these complex networks, using both molecular biological and computational methods.
“Salivary proline-rich low complexity proteins in human disease”
Mari Nakanishi, Ph.D.1 and Kengo Tejima, Ph.D.2
1Assistant Professor, Virtual Human InformatiX Clinic, Contibution Course, Nara Medical University
Collaborating Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
1I received my M.S. in Science. After the graduation, I conducted researches on disease association of HLA genes in the Department of Legal Medicine. During this study, I was interested in the diversity of the HLA genes. Recently, I have been studing the relationship of disease polymorphism and molecular structure.
“Recognition of cross-β structure”
Eiichiro Mori, M.D./Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Nara Medical University
Collaborating Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
Biological phase separation is considered as a major driving force of membrane-less organelles in cells. Intrinsically disordered proteins with low-complexity sequence (LC domains) form labile cross-β structures to drive phase separation, and these polymeric conformations are transient but specific. We are trying to understand how cross-β polymers of LC domains are recognized and regulated.
“Design of artificial chaperones for nanobiotechnology”
Atsushi Maruyama, Ph.D.
Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Visiting Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
Research interests: Nanobioscience and technology, Biofunctional polymers, Artificial chaperones, Stimuli-responsive polymers
Recent publications: Smart protein refolding system based on UCST-type ureido polymers, Biomacromolecules, 2022, doi: 10.1021/acs.biomac.2c00694, Cationic copolymer-augmented DNA hybridization chain reaction, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2022, doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c11548, Label-free detection of HPV mRNA with artificial chaperone-enhanced MNAzyme (ACEzyme)-based electrochemical sensor, Biosens. Bioelectron., 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2022.114352, Light-regulated liquid-liquid phase separation for spatiotemporal protein recruitment and cell aggregation, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2021, doi: 10.1021/acsami.0c22314
“Milli-machines / Implantable Devices in Biomedicine”
Takashi Tokuda, Ph.D.
Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Visiting Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
Takashi Tokuda received his B.E. M.E., and Ph.D degrees from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1993, 1995, and 1998. He was an Assistant Professor during 1999−2008, as well as an Associate Professor during 2008−2019 in Nara Institute of Science and Technology. Since 2019, he has been a Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research interests include CMOS image sensors, implantable devices, wireless technology, and IoT.
“Development of bio-imaging and optogenetic tools based on the cyanobacterial photoreceptors”
Rei Narikawa, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Tokyo Metropolitan University
Collaborating Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
Based on the photobiology, I would like to understand the light-responsive strategy of the photosynthetic microorganisms, especially cyanobacteria, in the basic science, and link to the applied science. I love scientific discussion with beers.
“Category Theory for Neural Networks”
Yoshihiro Maruyama, D.Phil.
Senior Lecturer, Australian National University, Australia
Visiting Researcher, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Personal introduction
I am a Senior Lecturer at the School of Computing of the Australian National University. Prior to this, I held Hakubi Assistant Professorship at Kyoto University. Prior to that, I studied for a PhD at the University of Oxford. I work on formal logic, category theory (esp. categorical duality) and foundations of artificial intelligence and cognitive science.
Blitz Talks by Medical School Undergraduate Students
“Prediction of therapeutic indications and side effects for new drug targets in silico: Edit-distance based pathway-classifier”
Hirona Yokoyama
Medical Student, Nara Medical University
Student Intern, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Student Intern, Karydo TherapeutiX, Inc.
“Single cell transcriptome analysis”
Hotaka Doi
Medical Student, Nara Medical University
Student Intern, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Student Intern, Karydo TherapeutiX, Inc.
“Analysis of cell type composition in gastric cancer biopsies by scRNA-sequencing”
Miyu Terashima
Medical Student, Medical School, Okayama University
Student Intern, The Thomas N. Sato BioMEC-X Laboratories, ATR
Student Intern, Karydo TherapeutiX, Inc.