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Toda Lab
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The lab investigates what makes food "delicious" by starting from taste receptors.
AboutAbout the lab
Pursuing "deliciousness" through science.
The Toda Lab studies what makes food "delicious" by looking at how taste receptors detect taste.
Its methods include functional analysis of taste receptors, gene expression analysis, behavioral experiments, and analysis of food components.
Studying a wide range of vertebrates, from fish to mammals, the lab investigates how the sense of taste has changed in response to changes in habitat and diet.
The lab also searches foods for yet-unknown components that contribute to deliciousness.
Key terms
- Taste receptors
- A protein found in the taste buds of the tongue. When taste components bind to it, it sends a signal that produces the sensation of taste.
- Basic tastes
- The five tastes: umami, sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. The flavors we experience every day are combinations of these.
- Diet
- An animal's usual diet, meaning its food preferences and tendencies.
NewsLab news
Collaborative research paper elucidating the mechanism of the pufferfish umami receptor published in PNAS
A student received an Excellent Presentation Award at the Kanto Branch Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry
Collaborative research paper on the evolution of courtship behavior in manakins published
Collaborative research paper on the evolution of taste receptor genes in lorises published
A master's student received an Excellent Presentation Award at the Kanto Branch Meeting of the Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry
ResearchResearch themes
Taste is made up of five basic tastes (umami, sweet, bitter, sour, and salty), each detected by taste receptors in the taste buds of the mouth. Building on techniques for measuring how these taste receptors function, the Toda Lab works to clarify the relationship between taste and diet, and to find new components that make food delicious.
*Illustrative imageTechniques for studying taste receptors
By adopting a detection method that uses a calcium-binding luminescent protein, the lab has created an evaluation system that measures taste receptor function with higher sensitivity than before. It has also built a highly sensitive high-throughput assay system for umami receptors, which has rarely been achieved.
*Illustrative imageThe relationship between taste and diet
Many cases have been found in which taste abilities that were no longer needed were lost over the course of evolution. The lab has shown that birds that lost the sweet taste receptor came to sense the taste of sugars through the umami receptor, and that primates acquired the umami taste of glutamate.
*Illustrative imageSearching for new components that make food delicious
Seasonings, herbs, and spices may contain taste substances or taste-modifying components that are not yet known. Using its own evaluation system, the lab searches for them, and has shown that methional, an aroma compound in soy sauce, tomatoes, and cheese, enhances the activity of the umami receptor.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Toda Lab include faculty, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, special research students from other universities, and technical support staff.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorYasuka TodaPublications ↗
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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: “Volcano hummingbird (Selasphorus flammula) female in flight 2” Charles J. Sharp / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Techniques for studying taste receptors: “Microplate with reagents” Roddelgado / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- The relationship between taste and diet: “Giant panda eating bamboo” Kevin Dooley / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Searching for new components that make food delicious: “Flour tortillas, lettuce, cheese and tomatoes” W.carter / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (二階堂研究室): “Curious young cichlids” Cethuyghe / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (中村信大研究室): “Multicolor fluorescence image of a living PC-12 cell” 8x57is / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (刑部祐里子研究室): “Arabidopsis thaliana kz07” Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (加藤研究室): “Takifugu poecilonotus by DaijuAzuma” Daiju Azuma / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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