•   September 10 2025

New Publication

Dr. Haruka Suzuki (formerly a Ph.D. student at our center) and Associate Professor Shunsuke Yaguchi have uncovered the mechanism behind the formation of twin sea urchin embryos. Sea urchins are known for "regulative development," in which even embryos with large defects at very early stages can still develop normally, but the underlying mechanism has long remained unclear. Using the sea urchin Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus, the researchers discovered that blastomeres separated at the two-cell stage each first grow as flat sheets of cells that fold like a drawstring pouch to form a blastula. During this process, the anterior and posterior ends temporarily fuse, but subsequently realign at opposite poles. This has provided a clue for understanding the mechanisms of identical twin formation across different animals.

→  Unraveling the regulative development and molecular mechanisms of identical sea urchin twins

•   June 26 2025

Awards

Yiyi Li, a doctor course student in the Future Oceans laboratory, was awarded the Best Student Presentation Prize at the 2025 Ecosystem Studies of the Subarctic and Arctic Seas (ESSAS) Open Science Meeting

→ Future Oceans Laboratory homepage

•   June 14 2025

Open-laboratory Event

An open-laboratory event was held on June 14th for promoting the research and educational activities of Shimoda Marine Research Center, University of Tsukuba. We had a lively event with many participants.

•   June 16 2025

Open Fieldcourse

The Center will hold an open course for high school students based in Japan, "Introduction to Marine Biology," from Monday, July 28 to Thursday, July 31, 2025. This course is designed to open the Center, a facility for education and research on the marine environment and its organisms, to high school students so that they can experience and learn about the marine environment and the diverse organisms that inhabit it from a variety of perspectives.

Those who wish to take the course are requested to send the documents below to the University of Tsukuba Shimoda Marine Research Center by post no later than Friday, June 27, 2025.

If there are too many applicants, the University will make a selection and notify you of the result.

→ Guidelines for "Introduction to Marine Biology" (attached PDF)

•   May 26 2025

Media Coverage

Professor Kazuo Inaba from the Shimoda Marine Research Center appeared on TBS radio program “秘密諜報員みなみかわ" and introduced his research on sperm and cilia.

Date and Time: Thursday, May 22, 2025, 23:00-23:30

→ Apple Podcast
→ Spotify
→ 「X」

•   May 20 2025

Open Fieldcourse

The Shimoda Marine Research Center of the University of Tsukuba will hold an open fieldcourse "Marine Ecological Environmental Science" for graduate students from September 23rd (Tuesday) to September 26th (Friday). If you wish to take the course, please send the required documents to the Graduate School of Education, Life and Environmental Area Support Office, University of Tsukuba by the deadline (July 8th).

→ Required documents can be downloaded from here

•   May 12 2025

Open-laboratory Event

An open-laboratory event will be held on June 14 for promoting the research and educational activities of Shimoda Marine Research Center, University of Tsukuba. If you wish to participate, please register from the form below. The deadline for registration is June 6.

→ Information of the event (the event will be held in Japanese)

→ Registration form - https://forms.gle/7ZovYieC8F4oQGus5