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Ueno Lab
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The lab explores how the biospheres of Earth and other planets arose and evolved.
AboutAbout the lab
Tracing the birth and evolution of the biosphere.
The Ueno Lab studies how biospheres arose and evolved on Earth and other planets.
Using geochemical methods, including analysis of stable isotopologues, the lab has deciphered the changing history of Earth's biosphere from records preserved in sedimentary strata.
Because the history from the origin of life to the acquisition of genomes is preserved neither in rock strata nor in genes, the lab is also reproducing Hadean environments in the laboratory.
The lab also conducts fieldwork in ancient strata and in present-day hot springs that resemble ancient environments.
Key terms
- Stable isotope
- Atoms of the same element that differ only in mass and do not decay over time. Their ratios can be used to trace the origin and history of materials.
- Hadean
- The earliest eon in Earth's history, immediately after the planet formed.
- Protometabolism
- The primitive basis of metabolism, thought to have formed before life arose through linked reactions of organic molecules.
NewsLab news
Study published on tracing ancient ecosystems from microbes in iron-rich hot springs
Study published showing that organic matter on early Mars was produced from CO
ResearchResearch themes
The lab investigates how Earth's biosphere arose and evolved using geochemical methods. It decodes evolutionary history from the geological record and explores, in the laboratory, the history leading up to the origin of life.
*Illustrative imageRecreating pre-life metabolism in experiments
The lab recreates the environment of the Hadean Earth in the laboratory and investigates what reaction systems (protometabolism) can arise from the organic molecules produced there, and how they are selected within that environment.
*Illustrative imageReading the changing biosphere through geochemistry
Using geochemical methods such as analysis of stable isotopologues, the lab decodes how Earth's biosphere has evolved from records preserved in sedimentary strata.
*Illustrative imageFieldwork in ancient strata and present-day hot springs
The lab has conducted fieldwork in ancient strata in places such as Western Australia and Canada. In the hot spring project of the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), it studies hot springs that issue from serpentinite and resemble the seafloor of the early Earth.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Ueno Lab consist of faculty members, researchers, doctoral students, graduate students, administrative and technical staff, research assistants, and visiting researchers.As of 2025
- ProfessorYuichiro UenoPublications ↗
- Assistant ProfessorYuchen SunPublications ↗
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Ishikawa LabSchool of Science, Department of Earth and Planetary SciencesEvolutionary history of the solid Earth, mantle petrologyThe information on this page is compiled by the LabLog team from the lab's public information and interviews. For corrections or removal requests, please contact LabLog, not the lab.
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.
- Top image: “Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay - Western Australia - 27 Aug. 2014” Bryn Pinzgauer / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Recreating pre-life metabolism in experiments: “MARUM Schwarzer Raucher” MARUM − Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Bremen / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Reading the changing biosphere through geochemistry: “Banded iron formation Dales Gorge” Graeme Churchard from Bristol, UK / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Fieldwork in ancient strata and present-day hot springs: “Stromatolite (Dresser Formation, Paleoarchean, 3.48 Ga; Normay Mine, North Pole Dome, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia) )” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (尾﨑研究室): “Blue Marble Western Hemisphere” NASA / Reto Stöckli / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (横山研究室): “Asteroid Ryugu (ann19006a)” JAXA, University of Tokyo & collaborators / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (玄田研究室): “The Earth seen from Apollo 17” NASA/Apollo 17 crew / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (石川研究室): “Lherzolite mantle xenolith in basalt (Afton Basalt Flow Upper Pleistocene, 15-20 ka; Kilbourne Hole Crater, Aden-Afton Basalt Field, Potrillo Volcanic Field, southwestern New Mexico, USA) ( )” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
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