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Nakamura Lab
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The lab explores the beginning of life through principles that connect minerals and living things.
AboutAbout the lab
How did geochemistry become biochemistry?
The Nakamura Lab tackles the origin of life, one of the greatest mysteries in natural science.
Drawing on a wide range of knowledge, including electrochemistry, catalytic chemistry, microbiology, and geochemistry, it pursues research with a long-term perspective.
Its focus is the question of how geochemistry becomes biochemistry, and it explores the principles shared by the mineral world and the living world.
At the Earth-Life Science Institute, where the lab is located, English is the common language, and the members are about half Japanese and half international.
Key terms
- Hydrothermal vent
- A place on the deep-sea floor where hot water gushes out. Chimney-shaped structures form around it
- Electrochemistry
- A field that deals with the relationship between the electrons that substances exchange and electrical energy
- Biomolecule
- A molecule, such as an amino acid or a nucleobase, that makes up the bodies of living things and carries out their functions
NewsLab news
A paper on the formation of hydrogen cyanide, which is essential to the birth of life, was published in PNAS
A paper showing that the structure of water governs ion diffusion was published in Nat. Chem.
A paper on water oxidation by manganese oxide was published in Nat. Sustain.
A doctoral student won a poster award at the academic meeting of the Society for the Study of the Origin and Evolution of Life
An undergraduate student won the Okakai Excellence Award for a graduation thesis presentation
ResearchResearch themes
To take on the unsolved problem of the origin of life, the lab focuses on how geochemistry becomes biochemistry. Using knowledge of electrochemistry, catalytic chemistry, microbiology, and geochemistry, it explores the common principles governing the mineral world and the living world.
*Illustrative imageMaking Biomolecules with Electricity in the Deep Sea
Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are giant natural batteries whose energy source is the chemical potential gradient created by hot, reducing hydrothermal fluid and cold, oxidizing seawater. The 2010 proposal that they work as fuel cells was confirmed by measurements at a depth of 1,070 m. The lab is now reproducing deep-sea power generation in microfluidic reactors and testing electricity-driven synthesis of amino acids, peptides, and nucleobases.
*Illustrative imageMembranes Forming in Hydrothermal Vents
Cells obtain energy from the difference in ion concentration across a membrane. Considering the possibility that this mechanism arose in hydrothermal vents before living organisms did, the lab examines materials from natural hydrothermal vents at the nanoscale. Through synchrotron X-ray diffraction and optical and electrical measurements, it explores how nanochannels that selectively pass ions are formed.
*Illustrative imageThe Origin of Life and the Water Paradox
The polymerization reactions essential to life require water to be removed, but when water is removed, the redox reactions that provide energy do not proceed. The lab believes this “water paradox” can be explained by the anomalous behavior of water confined in narrow nanoscale spaces, and is taking on polymerization under water-rich conditions using hydrothermal vent minerals.
MembersFaculty
The Nakamura Lab consists of faculty members, researchers, administrative assistants and laboratory assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorRyuhei NakamuraPublications ↗
- Project Assistant ProfessorHye-eun Lee
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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: “Chimney-hires” NOAA Vents Program / Public domain (cropped)
- Making Biomolecules with Electricity in the Deep Sea: “Expl1834 - Flickr - NOAA Photo Library” New Zealand-American Submarine Ring of Fire 2005 Exploration; NOAA Vents Program. / Public domain (cropped)
- Membranes Forming in Hydrothermal Vents: “Hollandite-95021” Leon Hupperichs / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- The Origin of Life and the Water Paradox: “Inactive hydrothermal vents, Galapagos Rift (Expl )” NOAA Photo Library / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tateyama Lab): “Lithium-cobalt-oxide-3D-polyhedra” Ben Mills / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Matsuda Lab): “Robot arm handles an assay plate” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Hirayama Lab): “Coin-cells” Gerhard H Wrodnigg / CC BY-SA 2.5 (cropped)
- Related lab (Arai Lab): “Lithium-ion coin cell batteries in laboratory testing fixture” Chingo K / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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