Program

Outline:Glycans are exposed on the outermost side of cells and sensitively reflect changes in cell type as well as cell status such as tumorigenesis and differentiation. Furthermore, cell surface glycans also change due to aging. Therefore, glycans are extremely promising targets for targeting pathological cells and senescent cells. A drug targeting an endogenous lectin expressed specifically in a tissue (GalNAc-siRNA) and lectin-based cancer diagnosis (AFP-L3, M2BPGi) have already been put into practical use. Lectins are also expected to develop into drug carriers for targeting glycans exposed to pathological cells. At this symposium, we will give a wide range of lectures from basics to applications with the aim of constructing a new drug discovery strategy using glycans and lectins. Biochemical analysis of cancer-related glycosyltransferases, functions and applications of glycans in skin stem cells that change with aging, glucose metabolism that controls the behavior of cancer cells, and development of lectin drugs targeting pancreatic cancer. A lecture will be given by four young researchers in English who have the momentum to take charge of future glycan research. It is not interesting to study the prescribed route. We would like to discuss a challenging drug discovery strategy that utilizes glycans and lectins.

Outline:Of the lipids constituting biological membranes, sphingolipids are particularly diverse in structure and function. This symposium will cover recent advances in the sphingolipid research on structural diversity, biosynthesis, physiology, and pathology in different species (bacteria, plants, and mammals). The diverse sphingolipids include bacterial glucuronosylceramides and galactosylceramides, plant glucosylceramides and inositol-containing sphingolipids, and mammalian glucosylceramides, galactosylceramides, gangliosides, and ceramides. These sphingolipids have a variety of physiological functions such as immunity, responses to environmental changes, regulation of glucose metabolism, skin barrier formation, and neural function, and the impairment of their synthesis or homeostasis cause various disorders (obesity/metabolic syndrome, autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases, and ichthyosis).

Outline:Metabolic syndrome, indicated by central obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and hypertension, contributes to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. To develop novel strategies for the prevention and treatment of these pathologies, it is essential to better understand the lipid metabolism and its disorders. Recently, identification and characterization of new genes involved in lipid metabolism and advances in lipid analytical tools such as mass spectrometer has offered a tremendous opportunity to advance the understanding of molecular mechanisms behind metabolic syndrome. In this symposium, we invited cutting-edge researchers on lipid metabolism in the field of metabolic syndrome and atherosclerosis. We will discuss exciting future prospects in next-generation lipid research.

Outline:Lipids play fundamental roles in life as an essential component of cell membranes, as a major source of energy, as intracellular and extracellular signal mediators, and as a body surface barrier. The perturbation of lipids, in terms of quantity and quality, is tightly associated with various diseases. Lipid biochemistry, used to be a small area in life science, is now closely linked to pathophysiology such as metabolism, immunity, cancer, neuron, skin, reproduction, and development among others, and has made great progress in lipid biology. In this symposium, 6 speakers will provide the latest topics on the forefront of lipid biology covering the four major functions of lipids. These topics include novel action modes of secreted phospholipiase A2s, an old but new aspect of prostaglandin, an unappreciated metabolic flow from phospholipids to neutral lipids toward NASH, a unique regulatory role of lipids for T-cell immunity, a novel insight into lipid-driven linkage between inflammation and regeneration, and a large-scale degradation of intracellular organella membranes.

Outline:Though autophagy has been generally considered to be a non-selective degradation pathway, autophagy pathway has selectivity. It has become clear that soluble proteins, liquid-liquid phase separated granules, aggregates, nucleic acids, and organelles such as mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum are selectively recognized, sequestered and degraded. Like the ubiquitin-proteasome system, such selective degradation through autophagy is becoming clear to be involved in various vital events such as cellular differentiation, stem cell homeostasis and anti-aging. In this symposium, we show the cutting-edge of the selective autophagy-study and discuss about perspective of the research of autophagy-field.

Outline:Recent discoveries and innovations in the past few years have shaken up the traditional protein picture. For example, the number of open reading frames in genomes has increased dramatically due to the widespread occurrence of noncanonical translation. In addition, it has become clear that the expression patterns of protein functions in cells are also diverse. In other words, previously unknown "multifaceted" aspects of the protein world are beginning to emerge. To understand this expanding and transforming views of proteins, it is necessary to redefine the protein world in multifaceted approaches. The aim of this symposium is to introduce and discuss about the multifaceted proteins.

Outline:Electrophiles covalently bind to sensor proteins with reactive cysteine residues, thereby modulating a variety of redox signaling pathways. On the other hand, one of current topic is that histone undergo chemical modification by benzoic acid though the lysine residues, leading to the alteration in gene expression. A series of research results suggest that protein nucleophiles would be covalently modified by chemical substances taken into the body through the living environment, lifestyle and dietary habits; as a result, some cellular redox signaling pathways would be potentially activated. In this symposium, researchers who promote the modeling of "adduct exposomes" for substances that have the ability to chemically modify proteins, outline their strategy and recent findings of the study.

Outline:The cilia-centrosome system undergoes dynamic changes in the cell cycle. During cell division, the centrosome serves as the center of spindle formation, whereas in quiescent cells, the centriole acts as the basal body for ciliogenesis. The cilia-centrosome system also provides the basis for the function of motile cilia to generate various hydrodynamic forces and primary cilia that are involved in the reception and transduction of chemical and mechanical signals. Thus, the cilia-centrosome system controls diverse biological phenomena. Owing to these crucial roles, disruptions in centrosome biogenesis, ciliogenesis, and intraciliary trafficking can cause cancer and hereditary disorders with a wide range of serious symptoms. However, many "mysteries" still remain in the regulation of the cilia-centrosome system. In this symposium, we will focus on the recent hot topics in cilia-centrosome research, and enthusiastically discuss the future prospects in the field.

Outline:The organ is not just a sum of individual cells, but a dynamic multicellular system where diverse cell types and their extracellular microenvironment interact with each other to regulate the system. Although extracellular microenvironments contain diverse information that controls cell fate and behavior, their molecular identities, spatiotemporal dynamics and interactions with resident cells remain elusive due to inherent technical difficulties in the study of extracellular factors. However, recent technical advances in the detection, visualization and manipulation of extracellular factors, including extracellular matrices, morphogens and exosomes, enable us to better understand their dynamics in living organs, providing new conceptual information on the biology of the extracellular microenvironment. In this symposium, we will introduce the latest research on the dynamic interaction between cells and their extracellular microenvironment, and discuss future directions of this research field.

Outline:Mammals are capable of keeping their internal environment constant regardless of the change in external environment as evidenced by their endothermy. The ability to maintain a constant internal environment is supported by the potency to adjust their metabolic rate and/or state to the change of an external environment depending on circadian or seasonal fluctuation. In addition, mammals make metabolic state transitions in their lifetime when they experience huge environmental changes at delivery, during growth, or sometimes in pathological conditions. Elucidating how animals adapt to the environmental fluctuations and avoid tissue damages has many implications for preventing or combating diseases. In this symposium, young researchers using a variety of life stages/model animals share the latest progress on these research topics.

Outline:Cell response is an important common foundation for life. It has been reported that membrane vesicles, which are composed of cell membranes of every cell, exists among all life in each kingdom. Cell response by membrane vesicles is gaining interest. Membrane vesicles have been called the exosomes or microvesicles in human and animals, and they are related to the regulation of immunity and a wide range of diseases, including cancer. All gram-negative and positive bacteria produce membrane vesicles, and cell response mediated by the bacterial membrane vesicles also exist between animals and bacteria, not only between bacterial cells. Therefore, cell responses by membrane vesicles exist not only in the human body but also between interkingdom. In this symposium, we hope to gain general understanding about cell responses by membrane vesicles over the kingdom.

Outline:Aging is a gradual decline in physiological functions over a course of time. As aging progresses, tissues and cells exhibit characteristic biochemical changes, including genomic instability, epigenetic alteration, mitochondrial disfunction, and impaired proteostasis. However, it remains elusive how these molecules play a role in diverse species and organs; and how these factors all together contribute to the aging of the whole organism. In this symposium, we will integrate current knowledge on the biology of aging in a wide range of scales from molecular to cellular and multicellular levels and discuss potential intervention strategy for healthy aging and longevity.

Outline:Animals have diversified their individual sizes (length and weight) while adapting to their habitat during evolution. Biologists have investigated the individual size control mechanism (scaling mechanism) in relation to function. However, individual size difference between mice and elephants, genetic and environmental factor-dependence, organ placement and interaction, and organ size control remain unclear. Under these circumstances, recent research environment has been created in which the full-scale elucidation of the scaling mechanism of individuals and organs can be started by using genome informatics, various omics and etc. In this symposium, we will introduce research on the forefront of scaling mechanism.

Outline:Gene expression is required for fundamental cell processes, and its disruption causes various diseases. RNA mediates genomic information to proteins and acquires its function with various modifications. Recent advances in analytical methods have clarified RNA modification's essential physiological functions and clarified the relationship with intracellular signal transduction and metabolism through post-transcriptional regulation. Besides, the "RNA-protein complex (RNP)" formed by RNA with proteins plays a central role in the intracellular molecular mechanism. Translation machinery Ribosome, a typical RNP, is undergoing specific modification. It plays an essential role in recognizing abnormal translation, quality control of the ribosome itself, mRNA stability, and protein localization. Furthermore, the basic principles for controlling the function and formation of RNA and RNP complexes and manipulating cells have been uncovered. This symposium will introduce the latest research results aimed at newly modifying RNA and RNP and elucidating their physiological functions.

Outline:In eukaryotes, genomic DNA is packaged into chromatin. Recently, it has been revealed that chromatin structure plays an important role in the regulation of gene expression. This may be the foundation of the epigenetic gene regulation mechanism. The repeating unit of chromatin is the nucleosome, which is composed of histone proteins and DNA. The function of chromatin is closely related to epigenetic information such as histone modifications and histone variants, which affect the factors interacting with chromatin. Therefore, it is important to elucidate how chromatin structure, including the chromatin interacting factors, functions in the regulation of gene expression. In this symposium, we will present the latest findings on how the chromatin structure regulates gene expression.

Outline:At confused social situation caused by COVID-19, the importance of immunity as a biological defense system is re-recognized, and further the relationship between immunologic and metabolic diseases are attracting attention. In recent years, areas such as immune metabolism, which is a fusion area of immunity and metabolism, have become a new trend of biology and medicine, and dietary and nutritional components function as important factors in the control of immune metabolism. Although biological functions of dietary and nutritional components had many parts of vagueness, recent development of analytical technology is revealing the detailed control mechanism. At this symposium, pioneering researcers will give a talk on the future prospects of new fusion fields to clarify the interrelationship of "immunity, metabolism, and nutrition" using multiple analytical techniques and discuss the possibilities of a new field of biochemistry.

Outline:Some mammals actively lower their body temperature to reduce energy expenditure when facing food scarcity, a state known as hibernation. Hibernating animals fully recover to a normal condition with no organ or tissue damage. Because a hypometabolic state could be beneficial for many medical applications, this ability has evoked great interest. We found that chemogenetic excitatory manipulation of a neuronal population in the anteroventricular periventricular hypothalamus induces a long-lasting hypothermic/hypometabolic state similar to hibernation. These neurons act mainly on the dorsomedial hypothalamus to induce the hypometabolic state. This finding opens the door to the development of induction of a hibernation-like state, which would have potential applications in non-hibernating mammalian species including humans. We will discuss physiological states of the induced hypometabolic states focusing on the thermoregulatory system and biological clock.

Outline:Gene regulation is fundamental to life activity. Understanding of the basic mechanisms of gene regulation including transcription and RNA regulation has continued to grow in recent years. Advances in bioinformatics, next-generation sequencing, genome/RNA engineering, and single cell analysis not only enable high-resolution understanding of gene regulation but also promote to connect diverse genome-wide information and research fields; genome information and disease mechanisms; and population level genetics and single cell gene regulation, toward comprehensive understanding of biological systems. This symposium will connect domestic and foreign researchers (“Jet lag symposium") and discuss the cutting edge and future of gene regulation and network research.

Outline:Mouse models of human cancers are vital for understanding mechanisms of tumorigenesis and tumor progression, and also for evaluating new anti-tumor drugs. For this Symposium, we will invite 6 speakers who have generated or utilized innovative mouse models that target driver genes, express fusion genes, induce metabolic disruption or cellular senescence, and/or feature a unique approach to mutagenesis. The aim of the Symposium is to highlight how cutting-edge animal models advance our understanding of the biochemical mechanisms and fundamental principles of carcinogenesis, how these models can aid in defining signals important for resistance to molecularly targeted therapies, and how they can spur the development of effective new drugs for human malignancies.

Outline:From birth complications to cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration, we face the risk of developing a plethora of diseases throughout our lives. Over the past decade, it has become increasingly evident that factors contributing to disease development, from genetic alterations to inflammation, metabolic disorders, and stress, have systemic effects. Therefore, developing effective therapies against each disease requires multidisciplinary teams and multi-pronged approaches that can rapidly lead to a better understanding of disease mechanisms and thus to the novel targeted therapies. In this symposium, young investigators focusing on diseases such as pregnancy complications, aging, cancer, and atherosclerosis will discuss how immune cells as well as circulating factors such as metabolites, inflammatory molecules and exosomes act systemically and the approaches taken for comprehensive understanding of systemic disease biology.

Outline:In the central nervous development, enormously diverse neurons are generated. While the vertebrate retina comprises five major types of neurons (photoreceptor cell, bipolar cell, horizontal cell, amacrine cell, ganglion cell), each major cell type contains multiple subtypes. The mouse retina is known to contain totally more than 80 subtypes. The brain has various neurons as well. It has been suggested that proper development of diverse neurons is achieved through the gene regulation by endogenous transcription factors and the environmental stimulation by extracellular molecules, however, its precise mechanisms are still unclear. Since cell differentiation process continues much longer than previously thought and environmental cues affect cell differentiation through gene expression regulation, its underlying mechanisms are of much interest. By elucidating these mechanisms, we may be able to establish an scientific bases for the development of neuronal regeneration and therapies for neuronal psychiatric disorders. In this symposium, the prominent researchers, who study neuronal development by focusing on gene expression regulation, will give presentations to progress our understanding on the gene expression regulation in neuronal development.

Outline:The immune system is a tightly tuned defense mechanism, and its dysregulation can cause a broad range of diseases including autoimmune diseases, excessive inflammation, and tumor growth. The immune system consists of different types of immune cells with diverse functions, which are the results of gene expression coordinately regulated by chromatin modifications, transcription factors, and post-transcriptional regulators. Recent technical advances in genomics and single cell analysis have led to a paradigm shift in the field of transcriptional and post-transcriptional networks that regulate immune cell functions. In this symposium, researchers working on transcription and RNA regulation in immune cells with unique approaches will present their latest findings and discuss them from multiple perspectives.

Outline:Biological organisms on the earth are classified into three domains, Bacteria, Eukarya, and Archaea. Many archaea live in extreme environments and have unique vital functions not found in Bacteria and Eukarya. Metagenomic analysis is now very popular, and we now know that archaea inhabit not only in extreme environments, but widely in everywhere on the earth. Recently, new archaea belonging to phylogenetically different phyla have been proposed one after another. In this symposium, we would like to progress our understanding of living phenomena in Archaea by introducing the forefront research of biochemistry in the fields of genetic information system, cell structure, energy metabolism system, biological defense system (CRISPR / Cas system).

Outline:Chemical biology has been developed through the fusion of various core research fields including chemistry and biochemistry. In collaboration with genomics, metabolomics, chemoinfomatics, etc., an integrated understanding of various chemical signals in the living body is being achieved. By understanding the chemical signals that work between living organisms and proceeding with the search, identification, functional analysis of bioactive ligands, and target-oriented phenotypic screenings, it is also expected to expand to advanced medicines such as drug discovery seeds and logical design of chemical tools. On this symposium, we will receive lectures from leading researchers who promote the development of functional molecules based on natural products and synthetic ligands. We will discuss the future direction of drug discovery-oriented chemical biology research, such as the regulation of various biological functions by understanding chemical signals, and the creation of innovative medicines and pesticides.

Outline:Traditional small molecule drugs have been developed primarily through a team effort of clinicians, pharmacologists, and medicinal chemists. Now the definition of “drug" has been expanded enormously to include biological (protein) drugs, cell-therapies, and gene therapies, calling for the need to assemble cutting-edge expertise from much wider scientific disciplines. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic situation created a demand to accelerate the drug development at an unprecedented speed, which may not be achievable by the traditional drug development sectors alone. By showcasing several novel medical innovations being developed by basic molecular or cellular biology researchers, we hope that this symposium will help many basic biochemists in all disciplines to realize the potential of their science to contribute more to the medical innovations.

Outline:The rhizosphere is a unique interface between the roots of plants and a variety of organisms and is a place where organisms interact with each other and with their eukaryotic hosts. However, the rhizosphere is complex and dynamic, with innumerable interactions between host plants and other organisms, and it changes dynamically with environmental changes as well as root growth and development. However, little is known about how rhizosphere communities are established and maintained, and how member organisms exchange information with each other and with their hosts. Recent genome analyses have revealed that plants and associated organisms encode enzymes capable of producing a wide variety of metabolites, but the functions of these enzymes remain largely unidentified. In this symposium, we will invite experts in the rhizosphere to provide a biochemical approach to understanding the rhizosphere.

Outline:Recent changes in the policy of promotion of scientific research, such as expanded project-based research and term limits, have made the researchers' career paths more uncertain and risky, leading to a decreased research activity. How can we change this situation? It may be necessary for us to understand what the policy makers think and to join in the dialogue and cooperation among the stakeholders. Further integration of researchers into society may increase the number of supporters of scientific research. In order to raise awareness of these issues, this symposium focused on the themes of science policy, research integrity, science communication, and newly formed Japanese AAAS. We will discuss these issues through a panel discussion after the talks.