Live-cell fluorescence single-molecule imaging just emerged in the beginning of this century. Our laboratory aims at extending this potent approach of viewing specific molecular events in living cells. "Seeing (or thinking) single-molecule is believing."

What's New

• Mar. 29, 2023    A video introducing Watanabe lab is released on the Kyoto University, "Meet KU Researchers" website. ("Single-Molecule Analysis of Molecular Biophysics in Living Organisms")
• Sep. 20, 2022    A paper describing an efficient strategy to convert monoclonal antibodies to fast-exchangeable probes for multiplexed super-resolution microscopy IRIS is published in Cell Reports Methods (Link). We hope to see the “deep field” in the cell which will reveal precise localization of molecules tangled with each other. (Press release) (Selected for "Best of 2022")
• Jun. 7, 2022    In collaboration with Prof. Vavylonis group at Lehigh University, we publish a paper in eLife showing long-sought evidence of Prof. Watanabe's actin barbed-end dynamicity hypothesis. (Link)
• Mar. 24, 2021    Our paper describing a mechanism of paradoxical cell proliferation promoted by anti-cancer kinase inhibitors is published in Cell Reports. (Link)
• Feb. 2, 2021    Our paper describing a method for development of fluorescent probes for super-resolution microscopy, IRIS is published in Cell Reports. (Link) (Journal Cover)
• Aug. 1, 2020    Dr. Eiji Usukura joined our laboratory (Program-Specific Assistant Professor for NIH joint research project).
• Jan. 8, 2019    Our paper describing convection-induced biased misdistribution of actin probes is published in Biophysical Journal.(Link) (Link2).Our related paper is also published in Molecular Biology of the Cell (Aug. 2018, Link)
• May. 14, 2018    Our paper describing the actin filament untwisting by the rotational polymerization by mDia1 is published in PNAS. (Open Access) (Link2) (Link3)
• Apr. 1, 2018    Dr. Akitoshi Miyamoto joined our laboratory (Assistant Professor as of May 1, 2018).
• Mar. 6, 2018    We hold a celebration for Dr. Shuh Narumiya who was designated as Bunkakoro-sha (Person of Cultural Merit). (Photos (password required))
• Mar. 1, 2018    Dr. Sawako Yamashiro is promoted as Lecture in Kyoto University Graduate School of Biostudies.
• Mar. 7, 2016    Associate Professor Tai Kiuchi received the Nakatani Award (Incentive Prize).
• Jul. 6, 2015    Our paper introducing new concept multitarget super-resolution microscopy, IRIS, has been published in Nature Methods. By employing exchangeable fluorescent probes that bind the target transiently, IRIS yields densely-labeled high-fidelity images of the target structures, which is a major breakthrough for molecular localization studies at 10 nanometer scale. (Link)
• Apr. 1, 2015    “Laboratory of Single-Molecule Cell Biology” is launched as the new name for our laboratory in Graduate School of Biostudies.
• Jan. 8, 2015    A detailed protocol for our eSiMS microscopy has been published. eSiMS stands for “easy, efficient and electroporation-based Single-Molecule Speckle” microscopy. (Link)
• Jan. 1, 2015    Our laboratory joined Kyoto University Graduate School of Biostudies in addition to Faculty of Medicine.
• Jul. 1, 2014    We have moved from Tohoku University to Kyoto University. Our laboratory organizes Department of Pharmacology, Kyoto University Faculty Medicine where Prof. Watanabe used to work.
• Feb. 21, 2014    A new paper by Yamashiro et al. is accepted for publication in MBoC. In this article, we introduce a new easy-to-use single-molecule speckle (SiMS) microscopy which enables nanometer-scale flow velocity and wide-range lifetime measurement of cellular actin filaments. We discovered gathering and collecting actions of focal adhesions on the lamellipodial actin flow. (Link)
• Jul. 18, 2013    The publication list has been updated with Higashida et al. (Nature Cell Biology, 15, 395-405, 2013) .
• Jul. 10, 2012    The article on our collaboration with Dr. Vavylonis Group appeared on the Lehigh University Web site. (Link)
• Feb. 2012    A basic procedure of live-cell single-molecule speckle microscopy is published in Meth. Enzymol. (Link)
• Oct. 20, 2011    A paper by Masahiro Maruoka et al. has been accepted in Biochemical Journal. (Link)
• Oct. 5, 2011    A paper by Smith et al., which was supported by the HFSP grant, is published in Biophysical Journal. An ImageJ plugin for particle tracking, ‘Speckle TrackerJ’ is available at http://athena.physics.lehigh.edu/.
• Jul. 4, 2011    Sawako Yamashiro joined our laboratory as a postdoc.
• Apr. 18, 2011    An article by Tai Kiuchi et al. is published in Journal of Cell Biology.
• Apr. 1, 2011    Tai Kiuchi joined our laboratory as a Research Associate.
• Feb. 7, 2011    A paper in which Masahiro Maruoka is the corresponding author is published in FEBS Letters. (Pubmed)
• Jan. 7, 2011    A paper by Hiroaki Mizuno et al. is published in Science.