Member

Satoshi Sawai

  • PI
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Professor
Research Areas
Cell Biology, Biophysics
Keywords
cellular slime mold, multicellular evolution, mechano-transduction, tissue elongation

Related Outline

A hallmark of multicellular organization in animals lies in the morphogenetic dynamics involving cellular rearrangements. Cells change their polarity and motility according to the surrounding cells and other environmental cues, thus positioning themselves appropriately in both space and time. Underlying this well-tuned coordination is a mechanism that modulates F-actin based cell motility together with cell–cell adhesion in a force-dependent manner. Interestingly, even in the Amoebozoa— a sister group to animals and fungi— a large clade of cellular slime mold species undergoes complex morphogenetic movements to establish a multicellular structure. What mechanical principles and components are employed in their morphogenetic movements? By uncovering both the similarities and differences between the paths taken by animals and slime molds, we aim to better understand how complex morphogenetic behaviors could have evolved.

Career

Satoshi Sawai received education in pure and applied physics (Waseda University, Tokyo) and received a master’s degree in 1998 in the area of nonlinear dynamics (advisor: Prof. Yoji Aizawa, Waseda University). He received Doctorate in 2001 for his graduate studies on pattern formation under supervision of Prof. Yasuji Sawada at Tohoku University where he began experimental study of Dictyostelium in collaboration with Prof. Yasuo Maeda and his colleagues. Later he joined the lab of Edward C. Cox at the Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University where he began integrating mathematical modeling and molecular-cell biology approach to study Dictyostelium chemotactic wave formation. In 2005, he returned to Japan to take part in the JST-ERATO project lead by Prof. Kunihiko Kaneko as a group leader and where he and his team incorporated live-cell imaging approach to elucidate the onset of collective oscillations in Dictyostelium. He was appointed as Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo in 2008 and was appointed Professor in 2018. He is also an adjunct professor from 2018 at the Biology Department in the Graduate School of Science in the University of Tokyo.

Representative Achievements

  • Cell–cell heterogeneity in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase biases early cell fate priming in Dictyostelium discoideum
    K. Abe, H. Hashimura, H. Hiraoka, S. Fujishiro, N. Kameya, K. Taoka, S. Kuwana, M. Fukuzawa, S. Sawai
    Front. Cell Dev. Biol., 12, 1526795 (2024)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2024.1526795
  • Multi-color fluorescence live-cell imaging in Dictyostelium discoideum
    H. Hashimura, S. Kuwana, H. Nakagawa, K. Abe, T. Adachi, T. Sugita, S. Fujishiro, G. Honda, S. Sawai
    Cell. Struct. Funct., 49 (2) 135-153 (2024)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1247/csf.24065
  • Microtopographical guidance of macropinocytic signaling patches
    G. Honda, N. Saito, T. Fujimori, H. Hashimura, M. J. Nakamura, A. Nakajima, S. Sawai
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 118 (50), e2110281118 (2021)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2110281118
  • Three-dimensional morphodynamic simulations of macropinocytic cups
    N. Saito, S. Sawai
    iScience 24 (10), 103087 (2021)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.103087
  • Comparative mapping of crawling-cell morphodynamics in deep learning-based feature space
    D. Imoto, N. Saito, A. Nakajima, G. Honda, M. Ishida, T. Sugita, S. Ishihara, K. Katagiri, C. Okimura,Y. Iwadate, S. Sawai
    PLoS Comput. Biol. 17 (8) e1009237 (2021)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009237
  • Tissue self-organization based on collective cell migration by contact activation of locomotion and chemotaxis
    T. Fujimori, A. Nakajima, N. Shimada, S. Sawai
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 116, 4291-4296 (2019)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1815063116
  • Rectified directional sensing in long range cell migration
    A. Nakajima, S. Ishihara, D. Imoto and S. Sawai
    Nat. Commun. 5, 5367 (2014)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6367
  • The onset of collective behavior in social amoebae
    T. Gregor, K. Fujimoto, N. Masaki and S. Sawai
    Science 328, 1021-1025 (2010)
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1183415