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Cell Function Design Lab
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A lab that designs cell behavior to explore how tissues are built.
AboutAbout the lab
Designing cell behavior to understand living systems
The Cell Function Design Lab studies how cells build complex tissues and organs and generate cell-population functions such as maintaining homeostasis and regeneration.
By freely designing the rules of cell–cell interaction and testing the resulting behavior of cell populations, the lab aims to understand how tissues form and to develop new tissue engineering technologies.
The lab is also working on developing new therapies based on manipulating cell–cell interactions.
The lab is located at the Institute for Protein Research, The University of Osaka, and accepts graduate students from the Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science.
Key terms
- Synthetic biology
- A field in which the molecules and cells needed to create biological functions are designed and then tested in actual cells.
- synNotch
- An artificial receptor that allows cells to control each other's gene expression.
- Morphogen
- A secreted factor that diffuses during development to form a concentration gradient and spatially controls cell differentiation according to concentration.
NewsLab news
Associate Professor Satoshi Toda receives the Japanese Biochemical Society's FY2026 Encouragement Award
Paper from joint research with Kanazawa University published in Nano Letters
Associate Professor Satoshi Toda receives the FY2025 The University of Osaka Award
Review article in Japanese published in Rinsho Meneki Arerugi-ka
Review article in Japanese on morphogen signaling published in Seikagaku
ResearchResearch themes
Cells interact with one another and spontaneously form higher-order structures. The lab develops molecular tools that make cells interact with each other as intended, and uses synthetic biology approaches to investigate what kinds of interactions among cultured cells can "synthesize" tissue structures and functions.
*Illustrative imageBuilding multilayered structures with cell adhesion
Using the synthetic receptor synNotch, the lab designed a cell–cell signaling circuit that controls the expression level of the cell adhesion molecule cadherin. Cells spontaneously arrange themselves in orderly patterns, forming a variety of multilayered structures.
*Illustrative imageDesigning patterns with synthetic morphogens
The lab developed a synthetic morphogen system in which GFP, a fluorescent molecule with no physiological activity, acts as a morphogen. By building circuits that secrete, trap, inhibit, and receive GFP, it analyzes the principles controlling the shape and dynamics of signal gradients.
*Illustrative imageArtificially creating tissues that grow on their own
The lab tackles questions such as how to form a lumen, how to correct disorder and form clean patterns, and how to keep tissue size constant. It aims to uncover the cell–cell interactions that build complex, dynamic structures and to design tissue structures at will.
*Illustrative imageDeveloping cell-based medicines
Applying technologies that manipulate cell–cell interactions, the lab aims to create cells that recognize disease-related cells or damaged tissue and induce the promotion of tissue regeneration or the suppression of inflammation. This means developing cell-based medicines that act as drugs within diseased tissue.
MembersFaculty
The Cell Function Design Lab's members consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, doctoral and master's students, administrative assistants, and technical assistants.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorSatoshi Toda
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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: “Organoid (NIH BioArt )” Courtesy of NIAID Ryan Kissinger / Public domain (cropped)
- Building multilayered structures with cell adhesion: “Cadherin-human endothel” Phaeton1 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Designing patterns with synthetic morphogens: “Pattern formation 3” Jobsarayutw / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Artificially creating tissues that grow on their own: “Tissue engineering italian” HIA~commonswiki / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Developing cell-based medicines: “Stem-cell-vials-in-hands-ama-regenerative-medicine” [<a href="https://www.amaskincare.com/about/alice-pien-md-medical-director/">Alice Pien, MD</a>] / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Interdisciplinary Group (Developmental Biology) Lab): “Fluorescence microscopy of stage 24 squid embryo with ZEISS Celldiscoverer )” ZEISS Microscopy from Germany / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Organ Morphogenesis Regulation Lab): “Tadpoles 10 days” The original uploader was Tarquin at English Wikipedia. / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Interdisciplinary Group (Nuclear Function) Lab): “Yeast cells in wet mount of culture” Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Protein Physical Biology Lab): “Fungi seen with fluorescence microscope” Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
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