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Food Chemistry Lab (Arai Lab)
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A lab exploring how the modern food environment affects immunity and homeostasis.
AboutAbout the lab
Bringing sensibility to life through food.
The Food Chemistry Lab studies how the food environment affects the mechanisms of immunity and homeostasis.
The modern food environment, in which overnutrition and processed foods are commonplace, is a new environment for our bodies, which took shape over a long course of evolution.
The lab investigates, from the molecular level to the whole organism, the molecular changes that food causes in the body, the immune responses to them, and their effects on organs throughout the body and on the brain.
The lab has a long history and has just started under a new professor with a new structure.
Key terms
- Homeostasis
- The function of keeping the body's internal state constant even when the external environment changes
- Innate immunity
- The immune mechanisms present from birth, which quickly detect and react to foreign substances and damaged cells
- Cerebrospinal fluid
- The fluid that fills the space around the brain and spinal cord. It helps maintain the environment inside the brain
NewsLab news
View More ↗ResearchResearch themes
The lab focuses on how the immune system detects the changes that the food environment causes in the body and works to maintain homeostasis. Its scope ranges from molecular changes to connections between organs, and on to body fluids throughout the body and the brain, with the aim of building a scientific foundation for maintaining health through diet.
*Illustrative imageHow Food Changes the "Self" and Immunity
In a food environment with overnutrition and many processed foods, changes such as glycation and oxidation occur in the body's proteins and lipids. The lab investigates how the immune system recognizes and responds to these altered "self" molecules.
*Illustrative imageInnate Immunity Linking the Gut and Liver
Nutrients and other substances absorbed from the gut are carried first to the liver. The lab studies how innate immunity in the liver responds to stimuli coming from the gut and maintains homeostasis.
*Illustrative imageBrain Health Viewed Through Diet and Cerebrospinal Fluid
The lab investigates how the state of the whole body, which changes with diet, affects homeostasis in the brain. As the point of contact, it focuses on cerebrospinal fluid, which connects the blood and the brain and maintains the environment inside the brain.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Food Chemistry Lab consist of faculty, master's students, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorSatoko AraiPublications ↗
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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: “Macrophage ( )” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- How Food Changes the "Self" and Immunity: “Food on Mallorca 11” Kritzolina / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Innate Immunity Linking the Gut and Liver: “Interaction between Kupffer cells, Stellate cells and endothelial cells” Bonnardel Johnny / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Brain Health Viewed Through Diet and Cerebrospinal Fluid: “Choroid Plexus Histology 40x” Marvin_101 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (食品生化学研究室): “Bodipy-wiki-Rkott-2023” Rkott / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (栄養・生命科学研究室): “Human iPS cells colonies” Christine Hale, Amy Yeung, David Goulding, Derek Pickard, Kaur Alasoo, Fiona Powrie, Gordon Dougan ほか
（PLOS ONE） / CC BY 4.0 (cropped) - Related lab (生物機能開発化学研究室): “Blue tongue” Sensonet / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (免疫制御研究室): “Cross-section histology of small intestinal villi of the terminal ileum” Mikael Häggström, M.D. / CC0 (cropped)
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