The ExCELLS aims to answer the fundamental question “What is life?” which all humans share. For achieving this aim, the center has established the Advanced Co-creation Platform as a project to develop advanced life science research. As part of this project, the faculty members affiliated with the center and researchers from external research institutions form a research team to work on a given co-creation research question. This is called the ExCELLS Project Research.
Exploration of the Boundary between Matter and Life
Team Principal Investigator
MURATA, Kazuyoshi
Project Professor
Material-Life Boundary Research Group
Project Outline
The ExCELLS project research entitled “Exploration of the Boundary between Matter and Life” was launched in FY2022. This project will observe the interactions between organisms and viruses living in extreme environments and the morphology, function, and dynamics of molecular complexes related to environmental responses, in order to elucidate the essential or minimal mechanisms and principles necessary to maintain biological functions, and will conduct research for a systematic understanding of the boundary between matter and life.
Planned Research Group
Publicly Invited Research Group
Spatiotemporal atlas of dynamic structure and function of organelles
Team Principal Investigator
SHIINA, Nobuyuki
Associate Professor
Dynamic Molecular Neurobiology Group
Project Outline
The ExCELLS project research “Spatiotemporal atlas of dynamic structure and function of organelles” promotes organelle research, which is expanding with the recent identification of membraneless organelles. We aim to elucidate the organization of membrane and membraneless organelles, as well as their reorganization, dynamics conversion, and functional regulation by various cues.
