Professor of Reproductive Biology and Reproductive Engineering

KIMURA Naoko

The relay of life, connected by the egg

All kinds of animal species are created through fertilization from a single round cell (the egg). Mammalian eggs, about 0.1 mm in diameter, are visible through a microscope. I shiver at the fact that my existence is due to the "relay of life" over the course of more than 500 million years.

Research and technology to support food, health, and biodiversity

Currently, technology for controlling and manipulating eggs and sperm—the cells that connect life—supports the production of livestock products around the world, is applied to reproductive and regenerative medicine, and is used for the conservation of rare animal resources such as pets and wild animals, making it essential to our daily lives. Our laboratory, using mice as a model, is working on technologies to cultivate aging eggs in the ovaries to revitalize them, and to increase the number of eggs stored in the ovaries to boost lifetime fertility, and we are achieving results.

Confronting the essence of life

Now, as the technology for artificially manipulating life has been developed, I would like to continue to sincerely confront the essence of "what life is" by shedding light on the characteristics of reproductive cells and connecting them to technological development. There are still many frontier areas for us to explore, such as development and epigenetics, the relationship between reproductive functions and health and longevity, and reproduction and immunity. My imagination continues to run wild every day.
Why don't you join us to do research on "the cells that connect life"?