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Cell Bioengineering Lab
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The lab measures cell stiffness with nanotechnology, aiming at applications in engineering and medicine.
AboutAbout the lab
Viewing cells through physics and information.
The Cell Bioengineering Lab seeks to understand cells, the smallest units of life, from the perspectives of physics and information engineering, and to apply that understanding to engineering and medicine.
The lab develops techniques to distinguish normal cells from abnormal ones based on cell stiffness, and studies cell function and cell signaling using cell sheets and micropatterned cells.
Making full use of nanotechnology such as atomic force microscopy, optical measurement, and microfabrication, the lab studies everything from single cells to tissues.
Because this is a new field at the boundary between cell biology and information engineering, students can pursue research with flexible ideas.
Key terms
- Atomic force microscope
- Atomic force microscope (AFM): a microscope that traces a surface with a fine, sharp tip and measures shape and stiffness at nanometer resolution from the force acting on the tip
- Cell sheet
- Cell sheet: cultured cells connected to one another to form a single membrane-like sheet
- Rheology
- Rheology: the field that studies how materials deform and flow when force is applied
NewsLab news
A student received the Young Researcher Excellent Presentation Award at the SPM Study Group of the Japanese Society of Microscopy
A paper on cell mechanics in Xenopus embryos was accepted by Development Growth & Differentiation
A paper on cell rheology in ascidian embryos was accepted by Biophysical Journal
A master's student received the Mikami Award at the master's thesis presentation
A student received the Young Researcher Excellent Presentation Award at the SPM Study Group of the Japanese Society of Microscopy
ResearchResearch themes
The lab is interested in the behavior of everything from single cells to tissues across time and space. To understand how cells mechanically self-organize to form tissues, it investigates the relationship between biological function and mechanical properties.
*Illustrative imageMeasuring the stiffness of biological tissues
Tissues change greatly in size and shape during development. Because it was unclear how accurate stiffness measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM) is, the lab proposed an equation that takes the slope of the tissue surface into account, and showed that the stiffness of developing embryos can be determined at single-cell resolution.
*Illustrative imageCells sense the stiffness of their neighbors
Using an AFM capable of scanning a wide area, the lab measured the distribution of stiffness in a cell monolayer. Stiffness was found to be correlated over long distances, suggesting that cells sense the stiffness of neighboring cells and adjust their own.
*Illustrative imageHigh-speed measurement of cell rheology
The viscosity and elasticity of cells change depending on the measurement frequency, but measuring one frequency at a time takes a long time and made it impossible to map their distribution. The lab developed force modulation AFM, which uses multiple frequencies simultaneously, making it possible to draw maps of viscosity and elasticity at each frequency. The lab believes this will be useful for observing mechanical structures inside cells and for diagnosing diseases such as cancer.
*Illustrative imageSingle-cell diagnosis
Even among cells of the same type, stiffness varies greatly from cell to cell. The lab has clarified in which locations within a cell this variation arises and how it relates to the actin filament cytoskeleton, which strongly influences cell mechanics.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Cell Bioengineering Lab consist of faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, technical assistants and administrative assistants, and master's and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorTakaharu Okajima
- Associate ProfessorKaori Kuribayashi-Shigetomi
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “Fibroblastid (BPAE)” Heiti Paves / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Measuring the stiffness of biological tissues: “Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens) Spawn - Simcoe, Ontario” Ryan Hodnett / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Cells sense the stiffness of their neighbors: “Células HEK293” Brandon Antonio Segura Torres & Priscilla Vieto Bonilla / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- High-speed measurement of cell rheology: “Atomic force microscope by Zureks” Zureks / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Single-cell diagnosis: “HeLa-IV” National Institutes of Health (NIH) / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Genome Informatics Lab): “DNA Helix CPK” Ude / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Magnetic Resonance Engineering Lab): “MRI Scanner Mark One” AndyGaskell / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Human Information Engineering Lab): “Femtosecond Laser and Pulse Compressor - Optics Lab - INRIM” Giorgio Brida from Torino, Italy / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Nanomaterials Optical Measurement Lab): “Gold25nm” Aleksandar Kondinski / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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