Laboratory of Applied Industrial Technology

About our research

Purpose of our research

Various chemicals or metabolites produced by living organisms are widely used as food, medical supplies, industrial commodities, etc. However, because there are so many compounds, it has become difficult to search for and identify useful compounds. We have analyzed as many metabolites as possible and processed them computationally to construct metabolite databases for application research.

Features of our research

We comprehensively analyze metabolites from various living organisms in a non-targeted manner using nine state-of-the-art mass spectrometers. All of the spectrograms obtained are processed computationally and stored in our metabolite databases for public use.

Expected fields of application

Our metabolite databases are useful for many different research fields concerned with metabolites, such as agricultural chemistry, food chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, and industrial raw material technology.

Our research projects

1. Metabolite database construction.

We have been analyzing the metabolites and compounds found in various plants, microorganisms, animals, and foods in a non-targeted manner since 2002 and have accumulated the information in our publicly-accessible databases.

2. Research into useful compounds contained in agricultural products.

We are analyzing useful metabolites found in agricultural produce such as tomato fruit, for example, those that are effective for treating metabolic syndrome.

3. Research on bio-fuel and biomass utilization.

To promote the production of bio-fuel (ethanol) from plant fiber, we have used metagenomics approaches to search for microbial genes that encode enzymes that degrade cellulose and hemi-cellulose.

Publications