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Life Function Systems Lab (Kikuchi)
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The lab takes a broad view of metabolism in the environment using NMR and data science.
AboutAbout the lab
Decoding the environment with data
The lab of Visiting Prof. Kikuchi aims to develop a new environmental analytical science that gives an overview of the metabolism carried out by diverse organisms.
In addition to measuring metabolites and biomass by NMR, the lab refines analytical techniques for inorganic elements and microbial communities, and analyzes the data with data science and machine learning.
It analyzes a wide range of targets, from laboratory systems to agricultural, forestry, fisheries, and industrial processes, and natural environments in water, on land, and in space.
Students can join this lab from the graduate level.
Research is conducted at the Environmental Metabolic Analysis Research Team, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (Yokohama).
Key terms
- Data science
- A research approach for extracting value from data. The lab analyzes the big data it collects with methods such as machine learning.
- Time-domain NMR
- A measurement method using NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). In this research, it is used to measure the mobility and hydrophilicity of plastic molecules.
- Adipic acid
- One of the building blocks of plastics. It is known to enhance biodegradability.
ResearchResearch themes
The lab uses data science to evaluate "environmental systems," in which many factors change while influencing one another, and to identify what should be controlled, and how, to bring about the recovery of nature. It puts particular effort into research toward coastal restoration.
Analyzing environmental big data with machine learning
Together with collaborators, the lab collects data on the phenomenon of interest, also uses open weather and ocean data, and uses machine learning to identify which factors should be controlled to steer the phenomenon in the desired direction. In 2018, it identified key factors in red tide outbreaks from time-series data on seawater components.
How microbial "villages" form on plastics
Focusing on biofouling of materials used in the sea, the lab examined 37 types of plastics synthesized by collaborators through biodegradability tests with seawater-derived microbial communities and measurement of physical properties by time-domain NMR. Plastics rich in adipic acid biodegraded faster, and microbes that favor adipic acid settled on them as if forming a "village."
A new NMR instrument for predicting degradation
To predict, from data at the time of manufacture, the quality of plastics that degrade during storage and use, the lab is developing with collaborators a new type of compact time-domain NMR instrument that can measure samples in rapid succession. It is a new analysis method that measures with a single-sided open magnet.
MembersFaculty
- Visiting ProfessorJun Kikuchi
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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).
- Related lab (熱帯生物資源): “Young rice seedlings in muddy rice field, Indonesia” Undeka 11 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (生物遺伝情報): “Blond and green rice fields” Basile Morin / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (実践アフリカ開発): “Rice field DRC” Abdoulma / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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