Niwa Lab

AboutAbout the lab

Exploring insect life processes through inter-organ coordination

The Niwa Lab uses insects to study how nerves, hormone-secreting endocrine organs, and various peripheral organs work together to regulate life processes.
The topics it investigates are germline stem cell proliferation, energy metabolism, the timing of development, and the establishment of parasitism.
Its main research subjects are the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the parasitoid wasps that use it as a host, and the lab is also taking on the development of environmentally friendly pesticides based on fundamental findings.
The lab's website also introduces it as the "Physiological Genetics Research Project (Niwa Project)."

ResearchResearch themes

The lab investigates how life processes such as germline stem cell proliferation, energy metabolism, developmental timing, and the establishment of parasitism are regulated in response to changes in the environment inside and outside the individual, from the perspective of "inter-organ communication mechanisms," in which nerves, endocrine organs, and peripheral organs work together. It studies insects, mainly Drosophila melanogaster and the parasitoid wasp Asobara japonica, and also conducts research aimed at pesticide discovery based on fundamental findings.

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Inter-organ networks supporting reproduction and energy metabolism↗

The lab is clarifying how neuroendocrine pathways and signals from organs such as the gut affect germline stem cell proliferation and the homeostasis of energy metabolism. It is also interested in the link to the decline of reproductive function and energy metabolism that accompanies aging.

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Timing of molting and metamorphosis↗

The lab's research centers on clarifying how ecdysteroids, the steroid hormones of insects, are produced in the body. It examines how organs influence one another, such as the prothoracic gland and the brain and nervous system, with particular attention to the relationship between nutrition and development.

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Relationship between parasitoid wasps and their hosts↗

Using parasitoid wasps that use Drosophila as a host, the lab has begun to investigate, with methods from molecular genetics and omics, how the host's development must change for parasitism to succeed.

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Development of environmentally friendly pesticides↗

The lab searches for compounds that efficiently inhibit molecules involved in insect development, taking on the development of environmentally friendly pesticides. In collaboration with the Drug Discovery Initiative at the University of Tokyo, the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), and others, it has begun compound screening using large-scale compound libraries and X-ray crystallography.

VoicesStudent voices

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