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Kiga Lab
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The lab seeks to understand life by creating life that could have been.
AboutAbout the lab
Creating life that could have been.
Kiga Lab uses synthetic biology, an advanced extension of genetic engineering, as its means of research.
Synthetic biology is a field that aims to build artificial living systems in test tubes or inside cells by combining the "parts" of life, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins, based on accumulated information on biomolecules such as genome data.
The lab's work ranges from the scientific exploration of the origin of life to establishing methods for designing organisms and applying them in industry.
The faculty member writes that the lab plans to pursue the work described in the research introduction, but that this is not an absolute constraint, and that the faculty member supports applicants who take on problems driven by their own sense of the issues.
Key terms
- Synthetic biology
- A research field that combines the parts of life to build artificial living systems in test tubes or inside cells
- Genetic code
- A mechanism, like a correspondence table, that determines which amino acid each sequence of DNA bases corresponds to
- Artificial gene circuit
- A system designed by combining multiple genes so that they regulate each other's activity
NewsLab news
Two lab teams won a Gold Medal and a Silver Medal at SynBio Challenges 2026
An international collaborative research team that included Professor Kiga published a 10-year roadmap for artificial cell research
An open lab event ahead of lab assignments for academic year 2025 was held in September
Lab members won a Gold Medal at SynBio Challenges 2024
A master's student received the Excellent Presentation Award (oral presentation category) at the academic year 2024 Kanto Branch Meeting of the Japanese Biochemical Society
ResearchResearch themes
Using synthetic biology, an advanced extension of genetic engineering, the lab covers everything from the scientific exploration of the origin of life to industrial applications through the establishment of methods for designing organisms. It combines experimental work that creates molecules with work that uses AI to design sequences and circuits.
*Illustrative imageArtificial evolution of proteins with altered amino acid repertoires
Why life uses the current 20 amino acids is a fundamental question about the origin of life. Using translation systems with artificially modified genetic codes and artificial cells, the lab creates proteins with altered amino acid repertoires and conducts experiments to evolve them artificially.
*Illustrative imageDesigning proteins with AI
Databases hold many registered sequences of proteins with the same function that differ slightly from organism to organism. Using these as training data, the lab models sequence space with deep learning and generates new sequences. It selects promising candidates with AI-based structure prediction, then actually synthesizes them and verifies them in biological experiments.
*Illustrative imageAutomatically generating artificial gene circuits that reflect researchers' ideas
A gene carries two kinds of information: "what to make" and "when to make it," and the latter must be designed by researchers. Where humans have so far had to evaluate a huge number of combinations, the lab uses AI, aiming to automatically generate regulatory systems that correspond to a researcher's ideas.
*Illustrative imageRecreating molecules key to the birth of life
By recreating biopolymers that were key at the early stages of the emergence of life, such as the ribozymes that existed in the RNA world, and clarifying their functions, the lab approaches the origin of life. It is also investigating how biomolecules behave in environments different from Earth's.
MembersFaculty
Kiga Lab's members are faculty, staff such as research assistants and associate researchers, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorDaisuke Kiga
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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: “Block tower on narrow base” Reseletti / CC0 (cropped)
- Artificial evolution of proteins with altered amino acid repertoires: “Beta-alaniini kristallid polariseeritud valguses” Janeklass / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Designing proteins with AI: “AP5M1 3D Protein Structure” Tobithias / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Automatically generating artificial gene circuits that reflect researchers' ideas: “Labyrinthine circuit board lines - Flickr - quapan” quapan / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Recreating molecules key to the birth of life: “Inactive hydrothermal vents, Galapagos Rift (Expl )” NOAA Photo Library / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Okano Lab): “Plastic-compass” Evan-Amos / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Iwasaki Lab): “Cyanobacteria 029” Lamiot / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Bannai Lab): “Synapsin and CamK2 positive neurons” ManuelSchottdorf / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Amasawa Lab): “Traditional Japanese wrapping cloth,huroshiki,katori-city,japan” katorisi / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
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