Member

Kaoru Sugimura

  • PI
Graduate school of science, The University of Tokyo
Associate Professor
Research Areas
Developmental biology, Quantitative biology
Keywords
Morphogenesis, Drosophila, Imaging, Bayesian statistics, Modeling

Related Outline

My lab aims at deciphering the mechanisms by which tissue mechanics and biochemical signaling are orchestrated to control epithelial tissue morphogenesis in Drosophila. By using knowledge, methods, and imaging data from non-biological cellular materials, we developed new mechanical measurement methods and a new continuous model for use in biological tissues, and clarified novel physical mechanisms involved in cell packing and rearrangement.

Career

Kaoru Sugimura graduated from the Faculty of Science at Kyoto University in 2001, and from the Graduate School of Science at Kyoto University in 2006. After working as a JSPS Research Fellow and a RIKEN Special Postdoctoral Researcher, she became an assistant professor in 2011 and an associate professor in 2017 at Kyoto University. She became an associate professor at the Department of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Faculty of Science, the University of Tokyo in 2021.

Representative Achievements

  • Attachment and detachment of cortical myosin regulates cell junction exchange during cell rearrangement in the Drosophila wing epithelium.
    Keisuke Ikawa, Shuji Ishihara, Yoichiro Tamori, and Kaoru Sugimura.
    Current Biology
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.11.067
  • Image-based parameter inference for epithelial mechanics.
    Goshi Ogita, Takefumi Kondo, Keisuke Ikawa, Tadashi Uemura, Shuji Ishihara, and Kaoru Sugimura.
    PLoS Computational Biology
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010209
  • AIP1 and cofilin ensure a resistance to tissue tension and promote directional cell rearrangement.
    Keisuke Ikawa and Kaoru Sugimura.
    Nature Communications
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05605-7
  • The mechanical anisotropy in a tissue promotes ordering in hexagonal cell packing.
    Kaoru Sugimura and Shuji Ishihara.
    Development
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.094060
  • Bayesian inference of force dynamics during morphogenesis.
    Shuji Ishihara and Kaoru Sugimura.
    Journal of Theoretical Biology
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2012.08.017