person

Project Associate Professor

Yutetsu Kuruma, Ph.D.

Career

2005
Graduated Department of Medical genome Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo (Ph.D. in Life Science)
2005 - 2007
Research Fellow: Department of Biology, University of RomeTre, Italy (Laboratory of Prof. Pier L. Luisi)
2008 - 2010
Project Researcher: Department of Medical genome Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo (Laboratory of Prof. Takuya Ueda)
2010 - 2013
Project Assistant Professor: Department of Medical genome Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo (Laboratory of Prof. Takuya Ueda)
2013 - 2016
WPI Researcher: Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology
2016 - Present
Project Associate Professor: Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology

National Grants

  1. Japan Science and Technology Agency Seeds A (FY2009) [as PI]
  2. Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "Synthetic Biology" (FY2012-2013 & FY2014-2016) [as PI]
  3. Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "Fluctuation & Structure" (FY2014-2015 & FY2016-2018) [as PI]
  4. Scientific Research on Innovative Areas "Hadean Bioscience" (FY2014-2018)
  5. Challenging Exploratory Research (FY2016-2018) [as PI]
  6. Young Scientist Research A (FY2016-2019) [as PI]
  7. Fostering Joint International Research (FY2016-) [as PI]
  8. NEDO Development of Next Generation AI and Core Technology in Robotics (FY2016- )

Foundations

  1. Astellas Foundation for Research on Metabolic Disorders (2015-2016) [as PI]
  2. National Institutes of Natural Sciences Astrobiology Center Project (2016) [as PI]
  3. National Institutes of Natural Sciences Astrobiology Center Project (2017) [as PI]
  4. ELSI Origins Network Seed Grant (2016)

Invited Talks

  1. “Artificial synthesis of transporter membrane proteins in vitro”, The 3rd Transporter Meeting, Chiba, Japan, Nov. 2018
  2. “Construction of a minimal metabolism leading artificial cell to an evolutionally early cell”, The Annual Meeting of Japanese Society for Cell Synthesis Research 11.0, Sendai, Japan, Oct. 2018
  3. “Construction of artificial cell and the study of Origin of Life focusing on membrane”, The 19th Symposium of Extremophiles Research, Kobe, Japan, Aug. 2018
  4. “Reconstruction of functional cell membrane based on cell-free system”, Yutetsu Kuruma, Cell-free Synthetic Biology Workshop, Fukuoka, 2017.12
  5. “Construction of a Model Cell Membrane Applicable to the Protocell Study” , Yutetsu Kuruma, International Symposium on Fluctuation and Structure out of Equilibrium 2017, Sendai, 2017.11
  6. “Construction of an artificial cell for the study of early cells” , Yutetsu Kuruma, International Conference The Origin of Life - Synergy among the RNA, Protein, and Lipid Worlds, Tokyo, 2017.1
  7. “Next approach to formulation of artificial membrane”, Yutetsu Kuruma, Origins of Life, UK, 2017.1
  8. “Construction of self-reproducing minimal cell”, 19th Annual Meeting of the Society of Evolutionary Studies, Kyoto, Japan, Aug. 2017
  9. “Construction of artificial cell membrane using in vitro protein synthesis system”, Functional Material seminar in ISSP, University of Tokyo, Chiba, Japan, July 2017
  10. “Do artificial cells dream of the origin of life?”, The 2nd Keio Astrobiology Camp 2017, Tsuruoka, Japan, March 2017
  11. “The Origin of life and artificial cell—Is it possible to make a life?”, Science Cafe, Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 2017

Awards

・12th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, 2010 August 19-23th, Odense, Denmark, Poster Award, Title: “Synthesis of Functional Biomembrane by Cell-Free Protein Production”.
・2016 SFS Award in Synergy of Fluctuation and Structure (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas, MEXT)

Press

[Press release]
“In Vitro Synthesis of the E. coli Sec Translocon from DNA” published from Angewandte Chemie International Edition in 2014. Published media: Nikeki-Sangyo Newspaper, Zaikei Newspaper, Nikkan-Kougyou Newspaper and many others.

[Website]

NIKKEI BioTech ONLINE”The front line of synthetic biology-No Vesicle, No Life”(By Atsuki Takahashi), Aug. 27, 2018,

Kodansha Bluebacks―”The Way to Life 1.0” “Simple!Synthetic ‘Kitchen’ Biology”, “Scientist can create an artificial cell within five years?”

Higan.Net-Buddhism Now, News about the public lecture and discussion held in Nishi-Hongwanji temple (Kyoto), Dec. 2017

ELSI HP Highlights, “Building artificial cell”, Aug. 29 2017

[Outreach]

「TBA」, Yutetsu Kuruma, School Festival in Tokyo Institute of Technology (Kodaisai) 2018, Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 2018
Jodo Shinshu Nishi-Hongwanji public lecture School Nalanda-Special, “Artificial cell research and Origin of Life” by Yutetsu Kuruma, Kyoto, Japan, Dec. 9 2017