About
In current biology, our analyses of complex biological objects are limited to the time of observation. High-resolution molecular snapshots of cells can be obtained by various genomics and single-cell genomics technologies, but these technologies all require the destruction of samples, precluding the analysis of the dynamics of animals. To overcome this issue, we are developing DNA event recording systems by which molecular and cellular information within individual cells of a multicellular organism is progressively stored in cell-embedded synthetic DNA tapes. Such a system allows the readout of historical molecular expression profiles of many cells using high-throughput single-cell sequencing. Harnessing synthetic biology, genome engineering, cell engineering, and computational approaches, we develop “sensor, ” “writer,” “memory,” and “reader” systems for the video recorder of the cell.
Awards
- Allen Distinguished Investigator, Allen Institute, 2022
- Canada Research Chair in Synthetic Biology, Canadian Institute of Health Research, 2020
- Minister’s Young Scientists Award, Ministry of Education and Science, Japan, 2020
- PRESTO Researchership, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) 2014
- Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, 2012
Relevant Publications
- Masuyama, N., Konno, N. & Yachie, N. (2022) Molecular recorders to track cellular events. Science 377, 469-470. DOI: 10.1126/science.abo3471
- Konno, N., Kijima, Y., Watano, K., Ishiguro, S., Ono, K., Tanaka, M., Mori, H., Masuyama, N., Pratt, D., Ideker, T., Iwasaki, W. & Yachie, N. (2022) Deep distributed computing to reconstruct extremely large lineage trees. Nature Biotechnology 40, 566–575. DOI: 10.1038/s41587-021-01111-2
- Sakata, R.C., Ishiguro, S., Mori, H., Tanaka, M., Tastuno, K., Ueda, H., Yamamoto, S., Seki, M., Masuyama, N., Nishida, K., Nishimasu, H., Arakawa, K., Kondo, A., Nureki, O., Tomita, M., Aburatani, H. & Yachie, N. (2020) Base editors for simultaneous introduction of C-to-T and A-to-G mutations. Nature Biotechnology 38, 865-869. DOI: 10.1038/s41587-020-0509-0
Support Us
CIFAR is a registered charitable organization supported by the governments of Canada, Alberta and Quebec, as well as foundations, individuals, corporations and Canadian and international partner organizations.