Information
- 2023-04-01
- The spring semester of 2023 has begun.
Five new members (five B4 students) joined Team Dicty! - 2023-03-28
- Graduation ceremony March 2023.
One student in Master course and five in Bachelor's program graduated from Team Dicty. Many congratulations!! - 2023-03-11
- Sophia Biochem labs alumni meeting was held at SQUARE KOJIMACHI.
- 2023-03-04
- One-day practical course for high school students was hosted in collabortion with Sophia University Admission office.
- 2022-11-11
- Mr. Y. Nakahara, Ms. S. Nezu and Dr. T. Araki presented their works in the 95th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Biochemical Society (Nagoya Congress Centre).
- 2022-10-09
- Ms. K. Hayashi presented her work and won the Best Student Presentation Prize in the 2022 Annual Meeting of Japanese Society for the Study of Cellular Slime Mold (Osaka University, HyFlex). Well done!!
Research
Introduction
Natural products are the major source of therapeutic small molecules; not just for anti-bacterials and anti-fungals but also for anti-cancers where around half of existing drugs have this origin.
Dictyostelium is a social amoebae living in a soil, where is known as a battle field of chemical warfare. Dicty genome analysis revealed its massive potential of the production of small molecules, secondary metabolites.
What do these chemical compounds do in the soil?
Chemical Ecology
Understand the chemical communication between Dicty and plant-parasitic nematode to invent a novel Pest Management strategy for sustainable agriculture.
Chemical Biology
Understand the biosynthetic mechanism and biological function of halogenated dibenzofurans produced in Dictyostelium fruiting body.
Reference books
- Paul G. Falkowski "Life's Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable" Princeton Univ Press 2015
- Richard H. Kessin “DICTYOSTELIUM” Cambridge University Press 2001
