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Chemical Regulation of Biological Functions Lab
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A lab that designs and builds artificial molecules to uncover and manipulate how plants work.
AboutAbout the lab
Using artificial molecules to unravel and control life phenomena.
The lab designs and synthesizes artificial molecules, modified with original ideas from compounds such as plant hormones and those involved in energy metabolism.
The lab studies in detail how these molecules behave inside plants and elsewhere, aiming to understand and control the intriguing biological phenomena in which these compounds are involved.
Undergraduates are assigned to the lab in their fourth year (graduate school: Division of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Agriculture).
Key terms
- Transcription factor
- A protein that binds to DNA and regulates which genes are turned on
- Plant hormone
- A substance that plants produce themselves to regulate growth, flowering, defense, and other processes
- Intrinsically disordered region
- A part of a protein that has no fixed shape and changes its shape depending on its binding partner
NewsLab news
A doctoral student's paper is selected for the Cover Picture of ACS Chem Biol
A paper by Professor Takaoka and colleagues is published in ACS Chemical Biology
A paper on a chemocarrier that delivers peptide-type inhibitors to plants is published in ACS Chemical Biology
A paper by Assistant Professor Sato and colleagues is published in Nature Communications
A paper by Professor Takaoka and colleagues is published in PNAS Nexus
ResearchResearch themes
Starting from important bioactive compounds such as plant hormones, the lab creates artificial molecules and studies their behavior in detail, aiming to understand and control the biological phenomena in which these compounds are involved.
*Illustrative imageControlling plant transcription factors with chemistry
Plant hormones trigger a wide range of responses, including growth, flowering, and defense, through many transcription factors. The lab designs artificial molecules from three-dimensional structures that can selectively control the activity of particular transcription factors, and uses them to investigate how transcription factors regulate one another.
*Illustrative imageControlling proteins with no fixed shape
Intrinsically disordered regions, which have no fixed structure, function in many biological processes and are attracting attention as drug targets. The lab is developing methods such as chemically fixing their shape to restrict which partners they interact with.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Chemical Regulation of Biological Functions Lab consist of faculty, administrative assistants, research students, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorYosuke Takaoka
- Assistant ProfessorKanane Sato
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: “Auxin Phototropism” Patricklockwoood / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Controlling plant transcription factors with chemistry: “Arabidopsis arenosa kz24” Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Controlling proteins with no fixed shape: “Amelogenin protein disorder intrinsically unstructured protein MODELLER Kozlowski when used cite PMID 22624656” LPKozlowski / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Molecular Cell Breeding (Totipotency Regulation) Lab): “Transplanting rice seedlings Bali” John Y. Can / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Cell Biochemistry Lab): “Wavy collagen” PW31 / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Fermentation Control Lab): “Malaria Fermenter ( )” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Chemical Ecology Lab): “A green plant bug feeds on a yellow wildflower in the white drin” Julianruizp / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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