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Natural Products Chemistry Lab
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The lab searches for drug leads and explores the workings of nature through natural compounds produced by sponges and crude drugs.
AboutAbout the lab
Extending naturally occurring bioactive substances to the life sciences
The Natural Products Chemistry Lab studies natural products, the compounds that living organisms produce in order to live.
Natural products are already used as pharmaceuticals and research reagents, but much remains unknown, such as microorganisms that are difficult to culture and the pharmacological actions of crude drugs.
The lab searches for bioactive substances in marine organisms such as sponges and ascidians, as well as in crude drugs and foods, and investigates their structures and how they are produced inside living organisms.
The lab aims to apply the principles of nature to drug development.
Key terms
- Natural products
- Compounds that living organisms produce inside their bodies. Many have served as the origin of pharmaceuticals.
- Biosynthesis
- The process by which living organisms build compounds inside their bodies using enzymes.
- Symbiotic microorganisms
- Microorganisms that live inside or on the surface of other organisms and coexist with their hosts.
NewsLab news
Associate Professor Matsuda received the 2026 Enzyme Engineering Encouragement Award
A doctoral student received the Student Excellent Presentation Award at the 146th Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan
Associate Professor Matsuda received the Young Scientists' Award of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
A paper on the sponge symbiotic bacterium Entotheonella was published in Nature Chemical Biology
A paper on the chemoenzymatic hybrid synthesis of cyclic lipopeptides was published in Nature Chemistry
ResearchResearch themes
Using naturally occurring bioactive substances as a starting point, the lab aims to clarify unexplained phenomena in nature and apply them to drug development. It searches for compounds in marine organisms, crude drugs, and foods, and studies their structures and biosynthetic mechanisms.
*Illustrative imageBioactive Substances from Marine Organisms
The lab searches for bioactive substances in sponges, ascidians, and their symbiotic microorganisms, and investigates their structures. It also searches for the clusters of biosynthetic genes that produce these substances, and tries to identify the symbiotic microorganisms that actually produce them.
*Illustrative imageActive Ingredients of Crude Drugs and Foods
The lab isolates the active ingredients contained in crude drugs and foods, focusing on unstable compounds and others, and analyzes how they act.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Natural Products Chemistry Lab consist of faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, administrative assistants and technical assistants, and students in the doctoral, master's, and undergraduate programs.As of 2026
- ProfessorToshiyuki Wakimoto
- Associate ProfessorKenichi Matsuda
- Assistant ProfessorAya Yoshimura
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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: “Esponja (Theonella swinhoei), Anilao, Filipinas, , DD 67” Diego Delso / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Bioactive Substances from Marine Organisms: “Esponja (Theonella swinhoei), mar Rojo, Egipto, , DD 04” Diego Delso / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Active Ingredients of Crude Drugs and Foods: “WarmInterior” Loc Huynh / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (RNA生物学研究室): “FISH 13 21” Gregor1976 / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (薬剤分子設計学研究室): “Generic Drug Research ( )” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (遺伝子病制御研究所 病態研究部門 ゲノム医生物学分野): “Condensation1” Ascendinglotus2 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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