Metabolomics Team

About our research

Purpose of our research

  Our life is supported by various chemical substances produced by living organisms (metabolites), such as amino acids and lipids for nutrients, pigments and flavors for food additives, functional ingredients for medicine, macromolecules like rubber and cellulose for industrial materials. Grasping the changes of metabolites that are generated according to the genome information, should be useful for researches on biological systems, and for industrial application of organisms. Therefore we study and develop about metabolomics—a technology for comprehensive detection of metabolites.

Characteristics of our research

  A mass spectrometer, which is an apparatus to weight the molecules, is used for our metabolomics studies. One of the largest issues of this technique is annotation (identification or speculation) of the metabolites that are the origin of mass spectrum peaks detected. To improve the rate and accuracy of the metabolite annotation, we have been studied for experimental methods and have been developed tools and databases for data analyses. It is a feature of our laboratory that we can challenge whole the steps of data generation ranging from wet to dry.

Expected fields of application

  The Big Data generated by the metabolomics techniques should be utilized for discovery of valuable metabolites that have not been focused with the conventional approaches. The metabolites that are linked to specific effect, diseases, and qualities can be found. The metabolomics technology is prospective to the field such as agriculture by enhancing the value of products, food industries as quality assessments, and medical diagnostics and breeding as biomarkers.

Members