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Food Chemistry Lab
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A lab that studies how food components affect health, from molecules to humans.
AboutAbout the lab
Studying food components and health, from molecules to humans
The Food Chemistry Lab focuses on functional factors found in natural products, including foods, and studies how food factors affect our health and biological phenomena.
The lab examines these effects over a wide range, from the molecular level to human clinical trials, and aims to apply its findings to functional foods, pharmaceuticals, and the food industry.
The lab is also distinctive in that it produces mice lacking receptors for food factors and investigates mechanisms of action consistently from cell culture to animals.
Faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates carry out research while discussing it with one another.
Key terms
- Second messenger
- A substance that relays a stimulus from outside the cell to the inside of the cell. cGMP is one example
- 67LR
- Short for 67 kDa Laminin Receptor. A protein on the cell membrane to which green tea catechins bind
- microRNA
- A short nucleic acid of about 20 bases that regulates the expression of its target genes
- Placebo-controlled, parallel-group, double-blind trial
- A highly reliable clinical trial method for checking fairly and without bias whether an ingredient really works
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
The lab investigates how functional factors in foods affect health and biological phenomena, over a wide range from the molecular level to human clinical trials. Centered on elucidating the mechanism of action of green tea catechins, it also studies combinations of food components and plant microRNAs.
*Illustrative imageMechanism of action of green tea catechins
The lab has shown that green tea catechins bind to the protein 67LR on the cell membrane and trigger intracellular signaling, exerting anti-obesity, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer effects through the production of the second messenger cGMP.
*Illustrative imageFunctional food pairing of green tea and citrus
By comprehensively analyzing the metabolites of 43 tea cultivars, the lab found that citrus polyphenols, present in tea in trace amounts, enhance the production of cGMP, which is important for the action of green tea catechins.
*Illustrative imageVerification in human clinical trials
In a placebo-controlled, parallel-group, double-blind trial, a highly reliable type of human clinical trial, the lab showed that combined intake of green tea catechins and citrus polyphenols exerts anti-obesity and diabetes-preventive effects.
*Illustrative imageProtective effects of plant microRNAs on the body
The lab has shown that plant microRNAs characteristically found in rice have marked protective effects on the body. It has also found that other plant-derived microRNAs may contribute to regulating circadian rhythms, controlling immune function, and preventing Parkinson's disease.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Food Chemistry Lab consist of faculty, academic researchers, joint research collaborators, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, technical staff, and research assistants.As of 2026
- Senior ProfessorHirofumi Tachibana
- Associate ProfessorYoshinori Fujimura
- Assistant ProfessorMotofumi Kumazoe
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Vorspeise mit Dolma und Tzatziki” Kritzolina / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Mechanism of action of green tea catechins: “Jakseol green tea leaves” 예향 / CC BY 2.0 kr (cropped)
- Functional food pairing of green tea and citrus: “Citrus fruits” Scott Bauer, USDA / Public domain (cropped)
- Verification in human clinical trials: “Clinical Trial Volunteer Signs Informed Consent Form ( )” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Protective effects of plant microRNAs on the body: “3600Cuisine food dishes plants of Bulacan 33” JFVelasquez Floro / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Forest Ecosphere Environmental Resource Sciences Lab): “Lentinula edodes 20101113 a” Batholith (talk) / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Gene Regulation Lab): “Genome Sequencer2” Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS) / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Food Analysis Lab): “High-performance liquid chromatography” Dqwyy / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Biomaterial Design Lab): “Scanning electron image of wood pulp paper - 1,000x” Ckazilek / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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