Yokobayashi Lab

Introduction

The researchers and students in Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Engineering Unit (Yokobayashi Lab) at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate School (OIST) conduct chemistry and bioengineering research involving nucleic acids (e.g., DNA and RNA). The group started in 2004 in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at University of California, Davis, and moved to OIST in July 2015.

What's New

Postdoc positions (English/Japanese) (updated 2024/11)

2023/03/30
Our new RNA aptamer for mammalian riboswitches is published in Journal of the American Chemical Society! Result of a long-time collaboration with Astellas Pharma (completed). OIST press release. We have since developed other/better switches, and welcome new collaborations for aptamer/riboswitch applications, mammalian or otherwise. Please contact us if interested.

2024/11/6
Elvira joined our unit to work on a POC project funded by OIST Innovation!
2024/10/22
Welcome to our new intern Hannah!
2024/9/25
A follow-up paper on our ASP2905 riboswitches in mammalian cells was published in ACS Synthetic Biology!
2024/8/1
Congratulations to Lara for her KAKENHI grant (Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up)!
2024/5/23
A new paper on cell-free riboswitches in artificial cells in collaboration with our former member Keisuke was published in Chemical Communications.
2024/2/9
Welcome to our new postdoc chemist Harikrishnan.
2024/1/21
Welcome to new rotation student Anna and postdoc Thao who both started this month.
2023/12/1
Samuel has moved across the hall to the Laurino unit to explore the protein world. We hope to continue collaborating on an ongoing project with the Laurino group!
2023/11/11
Samuel received an "Outstanding Oral Presentation Award for Young Scientist (Otsuka Award)" at ISNAC 2023 which was held in Miyazaki earlier this month!
2023/09/30
Pouriya and Rosa went back home this month after fruitful internship. It was also the last month for Mayumi who is starting a new position in Europe, and Marius who will be setting up his own group in Germany! Best wishes to all!
2023/09/06
Gear officially graduated with a Ph.D. and has left left Okinawa for new ventures! Welcome to Hamzah who joins the unit this term as a rotation student.
2023/06/19
Welcome to Pouriya from University of Toronto who will be working with us this summer through JSPS Summer Program!
2023/05/31
Yoko's work on small ribozymes was published in Scientific Reports.
2023/05/16
Haifeng joined the unit as a technician.
2023/04/03
It's our pleasure to welcome Rosa from University of Valencia who will be staying with us for 6 months supported by EMBO Scientific Exchange Grants.
2023/03/29
Goodbye to Theo who completed his 6-month internship!
2023/03/14
Samuel's work on controlling phase separation using a DNA aptamer is now online in Chemical Communications.
2022/12/05
Farewell to Takeshi who has departed Okinawa for the next stage of his career!
2022/11/06
It's our pleasure to host Prof. Ben Berkhout from University of Amsterdam as JSPS Fellow for two months!
2022/11/01
Welcome to Theo who will be staying with us through March as an intern.
2022/10/03
Takeshi was awarded a Ph.D. Congratulations!
2022/09/16
Best of luck to Keisuke who started a new position as a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology!
2022/08/18
Gear's work on experimental exploration of a ribozyme neutral network is now online in Nature Communications!
2022/08/16
Samuel and Gear's work on sequence preference analysis of saporin has been published in ACS Chemical Biology.
2022/08/01
Marius's article in Journal of Cellular Biochemistry describes a potential pitfall in using EGFP in experiments that involve unfolded protein response (UPR).
2022/07/26
Samuel's collaborative work with the Pigolotti Unit has been published in eLife!
2022/07/01
Welcome to Bochen who just joined us as a new postdoc.
2022/05/06
Welcome back to Tomoya who will continue his thesis research in our unit. April was Vyankat's last month in our group. Best of luck to his future endeavors!
2022/04/01
Congratulations to Keisuke and Narae for their new KAKENHI grants!
2022/03/08
Takeshi's paper on cell-free riboswitch engineering is published in Nucleic Acids Research.
2022/02/11
Vyankat's work was picked up by Nature's Resarch Highlights section.
2022/02/01
Vyankat's work on DNA-driven macroscopic self-assembly is now online in Journal of the American Chemical Society! OIST press release with a nice video.
2022/01/27
Keisuke's NAR paper made the cover of the latest issue!
2022/01/06
Welcome to new rotation student Qiyi, and welcome back to Samira who starts her thesis research!
2021/10/22
Our first paper on stem cells by Narae is published in ACS Synthetic Biology!
2021/09/01
Welcome to our new rotation student Tomoya.
2021/08/11
Kamila's second paper on a new ribozyme scaffold is now online at ACS Synthetic Biology.
2021/08/05
Takeshi's review on cell-free riboswitches has been published in RSC Chemical Biology.
2021/07/31
July was Kamila's last month at OIST. Best of luck in the next stage of her career!
2021/07/06
Keisuke's PD-SELEX paper is now online at Nucleic Acids Research as a "Breakthrough Article".
2021/07/01
Welcome to another new postdoc Marius!
2021/06/22
Welcome to our new postdoc Lara who joined our unit as a JSPS fellow!
2021/05/07
Welcome to Fernanda and Samira who will be rotating in our unit through August.
2021/04/01
Congratulations to Gear his JSPS predoctoral fellowship (DC2)!

Older news and announcements

Contact Information

Address

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Engineering Unit
1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son
Okinawa 904-0495
JAPAN

E-mail