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Fujishima Lab
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The lab retraces the origin of life in a test tube.
AboutAbout the lab
How did life begin?
The Fujishima Lab studies questions about the origin and evolution of life using synthetic biology, molecular and chemical evolution, and computational science.
It seeks to uncover how highly functional macromolecules such as proteins and RNA arose and have been maintained.
In test tubes, the lab reconstructs primitive proteins and RNA and their precursors, and examines their properties.
At the same time, it works on creating novel functional molecules that life on Earth has not yet tried.
Key terms
- Synthetic biology
- A research field that treats the mechanisms of living things as parts, and designs and reassembles them by hand.
- Chemical evolution
- The process by which complex molecules arose from simple ones in the environment before life emerged.
- In vitro evolution
- A method of selecting molecules with a desired function by repeating variation and selection in a test tube.
NewsLab news
A doctoral student won the Student Presentation Award at the Spring Annual Meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan
A student won two Student Presentation Awards at the Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society of Japan
Paper published on a biosensor for detecting malonyl-CoA
Paper published on a reaction system that regenerates SAM from methanol
Paper published on the discovery of a group of promoters from hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria
ResearchResearch themes
How life acquired functional polymers is one of the great mysteries surrounding the origin of life. The lab uses synthetic biology, evolutionary molecular engineering, and simulation to investigate how proteins and RNA underwent chemical evolution in non-equilibrium energy environments, and how they came to take shape and be maintained.
*Illustrative imagePrimitive proteins and RNA
Using methods from synthetic biology and evolutionary molecular engineering, the lab reassembles primitive proteins, RNA, and their precursors in test tubes and examines their properties.
*Illustrative imageSearching for new forms of proteins
The lab searches for proteins with three-dimensional connectivity (topology) that has not been known before.
*Illustrative imageChemical evolution in deep-sea hydrothermal systems
In collaboration with geochemists, the lab experimentally tests how a two-layer environment of carbon dioxide fluid and water near deep-sea hydrothermal systems contributes to the synthesis of biologically relevant macromolecules.
*Illustrative imageEvolving carbon-fixing enzymes
Using a protein biosensor, the lab performs in vitro evolution of enzymes that fix carbon dioxide, searching for new enzymes with high activity.
MembersFaculty
The Fujishima Lab consists of faculty, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, research students, researchers, technical support staff, and administrative support staff.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorKosuke FujishimaPublications ↗
VoicesStudent voices
Compiled from answers by students who were in the lab. Ratings and reviews reflect individual students' experiences, not the lab's official views.
Students who take part in an interview may receive a thank-you gift worth ¥1,000, regardless of what they say.
On a 4-point scale, ● marks where students' answers fall
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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: “Miller-Urey experiment JP” KuriPop / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Primitive proteins and RNA: “Hammerhead Ribozyme” User:Gia.cossa / Public domain (cropped)
- Searching for new forms of proteins: “Trefoil knot cgi” Altapedia / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Chemical evolution in deep-sea hydrothermal systems: “Bubbles hires” NOAA / Public domain (cropped)
- Evolving carbon-fixing enzymes: “1aa1” Deposition authors: Taylor, T.C., Andersson, I.; visualization author: User:Astrojan / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (上野研究室): “Flu Self Assembly ( )” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (金原研究室): “Lipid Bilayer” US gov / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (堤研究室): “PDB 1dng EBI” Jawahar Swaminathan and MSD staff at the European Bioinformatics Institute / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (小畠・三重研究室): “1RRX pdb group” Christopher King / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
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