Posts

7/1/2024, Dr. Enaam Alghamdi joined Kono lab

A new postdoc, Enaam, joined our team. Welcome Enaam, we are so excited to work with you!

3/29/2024, Kou officially received Ph.D. degree

Our Ph.D. student Kou who led the Nature Aging paper officially received his Ph.D. today. Congrats Dr. Suda! We, lab members, are all proud of your achievement!

3/21/2024. Our paper is featured on the Cover of Nature Aging

Our paper appeared on the cover of the Nature Aging March issue!

Cover Image Image: Amy Cao. Cover design: Lauren Heslop.

Kintsugi is the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold and urushi. Although the pottery is repaired, it does not return to its original state. This explains our finding: plasma membrane damaged cells change their cell fate to senescence after the membrane resealing.

3/13/2024, Our new paper is out!

The paper led by our former postdoc Shinju is out!

Exocytic plasma membrane flows remodel endoplasmic reticulum–plasma membrane tethering for septin collar assembly

Science Advances

Vol 10, Issue 11
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adj1512

2/22/2024, Our new paper is out!

Our new paper led by Kou, Yohsuke, and Hana is online in Nature Aging. Damage to cell membranes causes cell aging. Thanks again to all the team members, friends, reviewers, and the editors. Numerous people, visibly and invisibly, contributed to it.

Okinawa Times (in Japanese)

News and Views, Nature Aging (in English)

2/17/2024, Former intern Ms. Hiyori Mori won a poster prize

Our former intern, Ms. Hiyori Mori at Keio U, won a poster presentation prize! In addition to the prize selected by the professors, she also won the third prize of students' choice. Congrats Hiyori, we are all proud of your achievement!

2/13/2024, Podcast and article

Our unit's research got the privilege of being featured in the Bioconvergence Center Series Podcast, along with Prof. Amy Shen Unit's research. We would like to thank DJ Nick Luscombe, the OIST CPR section, and all other contributors.

1/26/2024, Two papers have been accepted

A paper led by the former postdoc Shinju, and the other paper led by three equally-contributed first authors, Ph.D. student Kou, STA Yohsuke, and postdoc Hana, have been accepted two days in a row. The best moment in our lab's history.

Congrats & big thank you to all contributors!

1/15/2024, Sara successfully defended her thesis

Ph.D. student Ms. Sara Abdelaal, supervised by Prof. Marco Terenzio and co-supervised by Kono, successfully defended her thesis. Congrats, Dr. Abdelaal!!

Her beautiful work is here.

1/15/2024, New rotation student Ana joined the lab

Ms. Anastasiia Ishchenko will be working with us for one term as a rotation student. Welcome Ana, let's have fun together.

1/12/2024, Shinju's departure

Postdoc Dr. Shinju Sugiyama will move on to his next journey at Bacchus Bio Innovation. He worked with us for 4.5 years, and his contribution to the team was huge. Thank you so much, Shinju. Good luck with your future!

1/12/2024, Kou won the best poster award

Ph.D. student Mr. Kojiro Suda won the best poster award at the kick-off meeting of "A3 FORESIGHT PROGRAM Cellular Senescence: From Pathophysiology to Treatment" in Osaka. Congrats Kou. We truly appreciate the organizers, Prof. Naoko Ohtani @ Osaka Metropolitan U and Dr. Akiko Takahashi @ Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research.

11/16/2023, Shinju and Kou's review article has been published

The review article led by postdoc Shinju has been published. Congrats!

7/26/2023, Hunter succesfully defended his thesis

The first Ph.D. student in the Kono Unit, Mr. Hunter Barbee, successfully defended his thesis. Congrats, Dr. Barbee! We are proud of you!

5/28/2022, Yuta's paper has been published

Yuta's paper that reports new plasma membrane/cell wall repair factors has been published. Congrats!

1/11/2021, A new post-doc, Hana, joined us

We welcomed a new postdoc from Malaysia, Nurhanani (Hana). She is an experienced scientist with a bright personality. Her expertise is quite cross-disciplinary (molecular biology, immunology, bioinformatics and more). We are excited to work with you, Hana!

12/18/2020, Yumiko and Yuta's last day

We needed to say good-bye to our lab mates, a post-doc Yumiko and a rotation student Yuta. The good news is that they stay in OIST. Yuta will come back to us in Sep 2021 as a Ph.D. student, and Yumiko will move to the Husnik unit. Yumiko worked with us for two years and contributed a lot to the work on the plasma membrane damage responses. We will miss her Okinawan mind, "nankurunaisa (If you work hard and stay on the right path, a better day will come in the end)". Yumiko, thank you very much, and all the best for your next journey!

10/8/2020, Claire's start date as an intern student

Claire started her new life as an intern student. She previously worked at OIST Innovation Square Incubator! Welcome Claire, Let's have fun together!

9/18/2020, Yuta's start date as a rotation student

Yuta joined our lab as a rotation student. His research interest is yeast stress responses and lifespan. Welcome, yeast lover!

9/7/2020, Jan's official start date as a Ph.D. student

Jan joined us for his thesis research. His research interest is in organismal aging. Welcome to our lab, Jan! We are all thrilled to work with you during your exciting Ph.D. journey.

4/1/2020, Shinju and Keiko Grant Acquisition

Shinju and Keiko are awarded the kakenhi grant (Shinju: grant-in-aid for early-carrier scientists, Keiko: grant-in-aid for scientific research B). We are grateful for JSPS and reviewers.

4/1/2020, Sara and Miki are moved to Terenzio Unit

Sara and Miki are moved to Terenzio Unit as the laboratory in Lab4 starts operation. You will be missed!

1/21/2020, Emily, Kojiro, Yatzu and Miki Welcome Lunch

We visited Blue lagoon at Rizzan Sea-Park Hotel to welcome new rotation students Emily, Kojiro and Yatzu, as well as a new STA Miki! The lab is expanding. We are thrilled to work with new members!

12/25/2019, Munissa, Jan and Masato Farewell Lunch

Lab lunch at the Orange, Kafuu hotel, to say good-bye to the rotation students. Munissa, Jan and Masato, you guys were exceptionally productive! We really enjoyed working with you. Thank you!!

10/18/2019, Munissa, Jan and Masato Welcome Lunch

We went out to have welcome lunch at Moon beach hotel. This term, we host three talented and highly motivated rotation students, Munissa, Jan and Masato. The lab is full of energy!

8/8/2019, Allyson Intern Last Day

Today is Allyson's last day. She showed her talent not only as an experimentalist but as an illustrator! She made pretty bookmarks for us. Thank you Allyson, we will follow up your beautiful results to finish up a paper. Best of the luck with your Ph.D. life!