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Developmental Biology Lab
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A lab that investigates how mouse embryos, despite inherent variability, develop into a consistent form.
AboutAbout the lab
How form and order arise from a single fertilized egg.
The Developmental Biology Lab (Hiiragi Group) uses early mammalian embryos as a model to study the mechanisms of "self-organization," in which a collection of cells spontaneously forms an ordered shape.
In early mouse embryos, gene activity varies greatly from cell to cell, yet embryos of nearly the same form are produced every time.
The lab tackles this question by combining biology with physics and mathematics, while developing its own microscopy and computational analysis technologies.
Key terms
- Self-organization
- The formation of ordered shapes and patterns through interactions among components, without a blueprint given from outside.
- Cell polarity
- The difference in properties and molecular arrangement between locations within a cell, which gives the cell a direction.
- Implantation
- The process in which an embryo embeds in the wall of the uterus and connects with the mother. It is essential for later development.
NewsLab news
Announced that cell arrangement along tissue boundaries promotes maturation of the mouse embryo
Announced that coordination between cell shape and tissue movement stabilizes embryonic patterning
Announced that variability in the timing of cell division promotes stable pattern formation in the embryo
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to understand the principles by which a multicellular collection forms functional order through interactions across levels, from molecules to cells to tissues. By identifying these interactions one by one, it clarifies how complex shapes and patterns arise from a single fertilized egg.
*Illustrative imageFundamental principles of self-organization
The lab has shown that mechanical information such as cell tension, adhesion, and pressure, together with cell polarity and cell fate, influence one another, and that this interplay stably determines the size and the inside-outside pattern of early mouse embryos.
*Illustrative imageHow embryo size is determined
How embryos after implantation grow to a remarkably precise size is still unknown. Using its own culture method for growing peri-implantation embryos outside the mother's body, the lab aims to clarify how embryo size is sensed and how that information is fed back to cell behavior.
MembersFaculty
Members of the Developmental Biology Lab (Hiiragi Group) include faculty, technical assistants, graduate students (master's), undergraduates, and secretaries.As of 2025
- Special Invited ProfessorTakashi Hiiragi
- Program-Specific LecturerTakafumi Ichikawa
VoicesStudent voices
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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: “Mouse embryo vasculature” Ronakshetty21 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Fundamental principles of self-organization: “Mouse and Snake Embryos” Joost M Woltering / CC BY 2.5 (cropped)
- How embryo size is determined: “Patterning in mouse embryos digits” Rushikesh Sheth and Marian Ros / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Molecular Oncology Lab): “Oral epithelium - Epithelial cells - Methylene blue dye - View 40X” Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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