RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research Laboratory for Developmental Morphogeometry
Team Leader: Yoshihiro Morishita (Ph.D.)
Research Summary

Developmental phenomena comprise a multiscalar system extending across a range of spatial scales, from molecular to cellular to histological. Such phenomena are also multiphysical, in that they involve the transmission and reception of positional information through diffusion and reactions of chemicals, and the generation of forces within tissues and concomitant geometric transformations through the proliferation and migration of cells. The Laboratory for Developmental Morphogeometry takes theoretical and experimental approaches to the study of phenomena comprising multiple scales and properties, and the quantitative measurement of dynamic and coordinated interactions between such phenomena.
Main Research Fields
- Complex Systems
Related Research Fields
- Informatics
- Mathematical & Physical Sciences
- Engineering
- Biology
Keywords
- Theoretical Biology
- Developmental Biology
- Mathematical modeling
- Numerical Simulation
Selected Publications
Papers with an asterisk(*) are based on research conducted outside of RIKEN.
- 1.Lee, S-W. & Morishita, Y.:
"Possible roles of mechanical cell elimination intrinsic to growing tissues from the perspective of tissue growth efficiency and homeostasis"
PLOS Comp. Biol. 13(7): e1005651 (2017) - 2.Suzuki, T., & Morishita, Y.:
"A quantitative approach to understanding vertebrate limb morphogenesis at the macroscopic tissue level"
Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev., 45: 108-114 (2017) - 3.Morishita, Y., Hironaka, K., Lee, S-W., Jin, T., Ohtsuka, D.:
"Reconstructing 3D deformation dynamics for curved epithelial sheet morphogenesis from positional data of sparsely-labeled cells"
Nature Commun., 8,15 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00023-7 (2017) - 4.Hironaka, K. & Morishita, Y.:
"Adaptive significance of critical weight for metamorphosis in holometabolous insects"
J. Theol. Biol., 417: 68-83 (2017) - 5.Morishita, Y., Kuroiwa, A. & Suzuki, T.:
"Quantitative analysis of tissue deformation dynamics reveals three characteristic growth modes and globally aligned anisotropic tissue deformation during chick limb development"
Development 142, 1672-1683 (2015) - 6.Morishita, Y. & Suzuki, T.:
"Bayesian inference of whole-organ deformation dynamics from limited space-time point data"
J. Theor. Biol. 357, 74-85 (2014) - 7.Hironaka, K. & Morishita, Y.:
"Encoding and decoding of positional information in morphogen-dependent patterning"
Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 22, 553-561 (2012) - 8.*Morishita, Y. & Iwasa, Y.:
"Coding Design of Positional Information for Robust Morphogenesis"
Biophys. J. 101, 2324-2335 (2011) - 9.*Morishita, Y. & Iwasa, Y.:
"Accuracy of positional information provided by multiple morphogen gradients with correlated noise"
Phys. Rev. E 79, 061905 (2009) - 10.*Morishita, Y. & Iwasa, Y.:
"Optimal placement of multiple morphogen sources"
Phys. Rev. E 77, 041909 (2008)
Recent Research Results
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Yoshihiro Morishita
- Team Leader
Core members
- Daisuke Ohtsuka
- Research Scientist
- Aiko Kawasumi
- Research Scientist
- Naoki Kida
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- SangWoo Lee
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Naofumi Kawahira
- Junior Research Associate
- Keiichi Kitajima
- Junior Research Associate
- Megumi Morioka
- Technical Staff II
Contact Information
2-2-3 Minatojima-minamimachi, Chuo-ku
Kobe, Hyogo
650-0047 Japan
Email: yoshihiro.morishita [at] riken.jp