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Chemical Life Lab
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A lab that uses chemistry and light to create molecular machines that work inside the body and soft lasers.
AboutAbout the lab
Building life and tiny devices with physics and chemistry
The Chemical Life Lab (Yamagishi Lab) combines organic chemistry with photophysics and molecular biology to study materials that lie between life and matter.
The lab aims to create the simple molecules that were used when life began.
It also studies molecular machines that measure health conditions inside the body, and soft laser devices that move like living organisms.
Key terms
- Molecular machine
- Molecular machine: a machine-like mechanism built by assembling molecules, smaller than a cell.
- Laser
- Laser: a mechanism or device that emits intense light with uniform wavelength and direction.
- Photoresponsive molecule
- Photoresponsive molecule: a molecule whose shape or properties change when exposed to light.
NewsLab news
Paper by a master's student accepted by ACS Omega
Paper by a master's student accepted by Nanoscale
Associate Professor Yamagishi received the Young Scientists' Award of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
A student received the College of Engineering Science Academic Excellence Award
ResearchResearch themes
The lab combines organic chemistry with photophysics and molecular biology to study materials that lie between life and matter. It works on three topics: molecular machines that function inside the body, laser devices that move like living organisms, and new life-like reactions.
*Illustrative imageMolecular machines that work inside the body
The lab assembles organic molecules to build measuring machines smaller than a cell. It is creating molecular machines that read information inside the body and convey it as light signals to those of us outside.
*Illustrative imageLasers that move like living organisms
To imitate the remarkable organs of living things, such as the eye, the lab uses soft organic materials such as liquids and plastics. It is creating soft lasers and liquid displays.
*Illustrative imageCreating new life-like reactions
Using molecules that respond to light, the lab builds molecular systems at the boundary between matter and life. It aims to generate new life-like reactions that do not exist in nature, using molecules different from DNA.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Chemical Life Lab consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, master's students, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorHiroshi Yamagishi
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: “Rodamine 6G Dye Laser” Jaurrutia / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Molecular machines that work inside the body: “EFluor Nanocrystal Vials” Travis.jennings / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Lasers that move like living organisms: “Cuvette for a dye laser” Zaereth (talk) / Public domain (cropped)
- Creating new life-like reactions: “Collection of Photoswitchable Molecules” Btotheotherb / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (超
高速光物性): “Optics experiment - Knife edge table (annotated)” Tobin from Rochester, NY, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped) - Related lab (人工ナノ構造物性): “Nion UltraSTEM Electron Microscope ( )” Oak Ridge National Laboratory / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (有機半導体物性工学研究室): “Detail of polycrystalline silicon solar cell” Elvis untot. / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (DNAナノシステム研究室): “DNA tetrahedron white” Antony-22 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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