June 9, 2022
Keio University
Tohoku University
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
A research group led by Associate Professor Kei Fujiwara and Professor Nobuhide Doi of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University; Sakura Takada (a second-year master's student) of the Graduate School of Science and Technology at the same university; and Associate Professor Natsuhiko Yoshinaga of the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (WPI-AIMR), Tohoku University (also Deputy Director of the Mathematics for Advanced Materials-Open Innovation Laboratory (MathAM-OIL), AIST-Tohoku University), has elucidated the mechanism by which the assembly location of proteins that determine the cell division site moves back and forth between the cell poles like a wave, using artificial cells that mimic life.
Further development of these findings is expected to advance our understanding of how molecular positions are determined within cells and lead to the creation of artificial cells that can self-replicate through autonomous cell division, much like living cells. The details of this research were published online in the scientific journal Science Advances on June 8, 2022 (U.S. Eastern Time).
Please see below for the full press release.