KDRI was founded in March, 1991 and is supported by the local government of Chiba Prefecture. It is located in the Kazusa Academia Park at the eastern edge of Kisarazu City surrounded by a green environment that contains a rich and diverse wildlife. Our research focus is the analysis of the genetic information encoded in plant and human DNAs that outline the 'master plan of life'. Based on the results obtained so far, further scientific research has been performed on various genes that function in cells. We have made good use of the facility that enables large-scale genome analysis, which is one of the best of its kind in Japan. Recently, we revealed the genomic structure of a legume plant and its symbiotic nodule bacteria, as well as many long human cDNA sequences.
There are four departments at KDRI:the Department of Frontier Research, the Department of Technology Development, the Department of Research & Development, Planning and Administration
Currently, we also pursue potential industrial applications for our research activities, such as developing methods to improve crops and the efficient control of materials synthesis, as well as designing drugs and medicines and the development of effective treatments for various diseases. More recently, we have started giving open lectures on DNA to the public to inform the citizens of Chiba Prefecture about our research activities and to explain what DNA is and how it is related to our daily life (please see individual pages for further details).