What's New

April 7, 2024
Lab member list and publication list are updated.
July 24, 2023
Kei Yura is going to talk in ESAB Webinar, 28th July, 2023.
May 5, 2023
A paper of transcriptome analysis on sparkling squid, Watasenia scintillans is cited.
May 1, 2023
Actin paper from the lab is cited by a recent paper in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution in April, 2023.
July 16, 2022
Cyanobacterial natural transformation paper is cited by Nies F. et al. (2022) on mSphere.
April 30, 2022
Intra-faculty collaboration on gene network analysis is now on BMC Ecology and Evolution
March 3, 2022
Collaboration with Prof. Haruko Takeyama at Waseda University on single cell analysis has been published on PNAS nexus.
February 4, 2022
Our paper on cricket genome was cited by Nakamura et al. on Current Opinion in Insect Science.
January 22, 2022
ThermusQ, a tool for Thermus thermophilus genome and proteome analyses, is coming up.
January 21, 2022
The review paper on cricket genome sequences is now open on Biophysical Reviews.

Laboratory of Computational Biology

This laboratory studies biological phenomena in the molecular level using computer only. The members in the laboratory use and develop methods to analyze genome sequences, RNA sequences, amino acid sequences, protein structures, biological supramolecular structure and so forth and unveil the wonder of biology. Those who would like to develop a computational data analysis method, or who would like to apply existing methods to new data are all welcome to this laboratory. Those who have experimental data that is difficult to analyze but who are keen on applying a  computational method are welcome as well. This lab welcomes a collaborative research as long as the lab capacity allows.

This laboratory belongs to the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science. But students in any department (biology, chemistry, information science, and physics) can choose this lab for the graduation research. Anyone who wants to study in this lab needs to know what DNA, RNA, and protein are in advance, but enthusiasm can outperform a shallow knowledge.

The main research area of the lab is (1) pre-translational post-transcriptional computational biology and (2) computational biology of DNA damage repair.

(1) RNA transcribed from the genome sequence comes to function after being fabricated. The study aims to identify how the RNA is processed.

(2) The fundamental and molecular process of biological evolution is a change in DNA sequence including DNA damage. All organisms have mechanisms to repair DNA damage, but if this repair mechanism functions perfectly, there is no evolution. This study aims to find the balancing mechanism between perfect repair and tolerance for evolution.

Other seemingly unrelated research are also going on in the lab and hence the progress of those research is not steady. The lab often jumps to an interesting hot topic that is brought by a new comer. We tackle various issues considered important for understanding mechanisms of life.

The entrance exam for the graduate school will be held in summer(Aug.) and winter(Feb.). For those of you who want to stay temporarily (eg. two-month internship) in this lab to get the feeling of the field and the lab, contact Prof. Kei Yura (Edit the Email address).