IHS-link slides

1. !
IHS-link Seminar No.1
The Life Question
141021
Kaito Kikuchi

2. Brief Introduction
Kaito Kikuchi
1st year Master’s student
Research Keywords:
Microbiology/Quantitative Biology/
Bioinformatics
Twitter: @kickingkite
Website: www.kaito.co

3. I. Life
common, extraordinary, diverse, complex.

4. What is Life?

5. What is Life?

6. Extraterrestrial Life?

7. Complexity
organism cell

8. II. Life Science
tackling the life question

9. “Life Science”

10. “Life Science”

11. The Cell: Foundation for Life
organism cell

12. Single-Cell Biology
Cells Cell

13. Why Single?
population
cell
orange
homogenous
yellow red
heterogenous
orange

14. Single Cell Biophysics
• Physical Laws
Pressure !
x Volume = Constant
• Aim to establish a Law of Living Systems
!
e.g. Viscosity x Cell Size = Growth
• Precise measurement of single cell parameters
Viscosity
Cell Size
Growth

15. Single Cell Microscopy
E. coli culture
slide glass
microscope
single cell
imaging

16. Single Cell Imaging
15sec x 300 images = 1hour 15min
GFP-tagged protein shown diffusing

17. III. Relationship
our standing point

18. Life as a focal point
Mathematics
Physics Chemistry
Philosophy
Computer Science
Arts
Biology
Sociology

19. Huge public implications
• GMO, Ebola, iPS, Abortion, STAP…
• Life-related issues have huge implications in
society
• Insufficient mutual understanding between
scientists and the general public
• Common yet remote nature of Life Sciences

20. Need for cooperative efforts
• Life-related issues demand interdisciplinary
attention and cooperation
• Example: brain death ethics
• Remarkable progress in diagnosis technologies,
but its accuracy does not yield an answer to
Brain Death = Human Death?

21. Conclusion
• Life Scientists: try to answer the Life Question
• The cell is the shared basis of life
→Single-cell Biophysics
• Life-related issues demand interdisciplinary
efforts
• How can we unite forces to address these
issues?