SEXSEED

NagoyaUNI participates in WP1(Coordination, Management and Dissemination), WP4 (Functional Characterization of the selected targets genes related to fertilization) and WP8 (Exploitation and Dissemination).

NagoyaUni is one of major national universities of Japan and one of top research institutes for plant science in Japan. Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM), NagoyaUni has been launched in 2013 as World Premier International Research Initiative of Japan. Top scientists in the field of plant/animal science and synthetic organic chemistry are gathering from Nagoya University, University of Washington (USA), Scripps Research Institute (USA), Queen’s University (Canada), and ETH Zurich (Swiss).

International and interdisciplinary researches are pursued. Mix-offices and mix-labs of ITbM building have no walls that separate each group, allowing mixing people from different labs, fields, and countries, communicating frequently. Prof. Tetsuya Higashiyama’s research group is focusing on key signalling molecules for sexual plant reproduction in 2 model species Arabidopsis and Torenia.

The group is well trained in performing live cell analysis with sophisticated microscopy and molecular biology including genome editing. At this moment, the group houses 3 associate professors, about 10 postdocs, 10 graduate students, 3 undergraduate students, guarantying active interactions and discussions for this program.

DEPARTMENT FROM NagoyaUni Galway INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT

The group of Dr. Higashiyama is in Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM) at NagoyaUni which is a leader in interdisciplinary research between plant/animal biology and synthetic chemistry. ITbM is a part of WPI centre specially promoted by Japanese government. Dr. Higashiyamas’ lab is in the new building of ITbM, of which entire structure has been designed for mixture of people from different fields. ITbM is an international institute. The official language is English and there are many foreign postdocs, students, and visitors.

The lab currently has ten postdoctoral and ten graduate student researchers as well as three undergraduate researchers. The lab has expertise in imaging, especially live imaging. Additionally, the lab has expertise in live cell analysis including optical manipulation and transcriptomes from small number of targeted cell collected under the microscope. Microfluidic devices are also available. The group of Dr. Higashiyama has developed semi in vivo systems wherein pollen tube guidance, double fertilization, and early embryo and endosperm development can be observed in the living materials of Arabidopsis. These systems and imaging technologies will be used by researchers of this exchange program.