FUNDING PROGRAM FOR NEXT GENERATION WORLD-LEADING RESEARCHERS
Project Title: Molecular mechanisms of eukaryotic flagella using new imaging techniques
Name: Masahide KIKKAWA
Institution: The University of Tokyo
1. Background of research
Cilia and flagella are important cellular organelles, which are composed of more than 600 kinds of proteins and
perform various kind of functions in cells. Recent information about genome revealed that lack of flagella
component genes leads to diseases, such as polycystic kidney disease or infertility. The genome information,
however does not include how cilia/flagella components are built or how they work. To understand the
mechanism of flagella/cilia beating, development of new methods are required.
2. Research objectives
Our aim is to develop new kinds of imaging methods to understand the mechanism of cilia/flagella. (a) freeze
cilia/flagella without staining and observe their three dimensional structures (cryo-electron microscopy). (b) 3dimensional tracking microscope, which tracks a swimming cell, such as Chlamydomonas, by processing
images taken by high-speed camera (1000 frames/second).
3. Research characteristics (incl. originality and creativity)
Above methods are developed by our group and these methods may enables us to visualize high spatial and
temporal resolution images of cilia/flagella.
4. Anticipated effects and future applications of research
Understanding of cilia/flagella mechanism would help creating nano-machines by mimicking the mechanism, as
well as development of treatment of “ciliopathies”. The new imaging methods themselves may also used for
other basic research, diagnosis of infertility.