RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences Laboratory for Symbiotic Microbiome Sciences
Team Director: Wataru Suda (D.Agr.)
Research Summary

All animals, including humans, coexist with microorganisms. This community of symbiotic microorganisms, known as the symbiotic microbiota, is closely related to the physiological functions of the host and has a significant impact on the development of disease. The Laboratory for Symbiotic Microbiome Sciences collects a large amount of data by advancing microbiota observation techniques, including metagenomic analysis, which comprehensively analyzes the genes of microorganisms. Based on the data obtained, we are working to discover symbiotic microorganisms involved in disease pathogenesis and homeostasis maintenance, elucidate their mechanisms of action, and understand the universal properties of the symbiotic microbiota.
Main Research Fields
- Biological Sciences
Related Research Fields
- Applied microbiology-related
- Bacteriology-related
- Agricultural Sciences
- Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmacy
- Informatics
- Biology
- Complex Systems
Selected Publications
- 1.
Nishio J, Sato H, Watanabe E, Masuoka H, Aoki K, Kawazoe M, Wakiya R, Yamada S, Muraoka S, Masuoka S, Hayashi T, Mizutani S, Yamada Z, Koshiba K, Irita I, Kanaji M, Furukawa K, Yajima N, Dobashi H, Hirose W, Ishii Y, Suda W, Nanki T.:
"Associations of gut microbiota with disease development, disease activity, and therapeutic effects in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus."
Sci Rep. 14(1):32076. (2024) - 2.
Takewaki D, Kiguchi Y, Masuoka H, Manu MS, Raveney BJE, Narushima S, Kurokawa R, Ogata Y, Kimura Y, Sato N, Ozawa Y, Yagishita S, Araki T, Miyake S, Sato W, Suda W, Yamamura T.:
"Tyzzerella nexilis strains enriched in mobile genetic elements are involved in progressive multiple sclerosis."
Cell Rep. 43(10):114785. (2024) - 3.
Furuichi M, Kawaguchi T, Pust MM, Yasuma-Mitobe K, Plichta DR, Hasegawa N, Ohya T, Bhattarai SK, Sasajima S, Aoto Y, Tuganbaev T, Yaginuma M, Ueda M, Okahashi N, Amafuji K, Kiridoshi Y, Sugita K, Stražar M, Avila-Pacheco J, Pierce K, Clish CB, Skelly AN, Hattori M, Nakamoto N, Caballero S, Norman JM, Olle B, Tanoue T, Suda W, Arita M, Bucci V, Atarashi K, Xavier RJ, Honda K.:
"Commensal consortia decolonize Enterobacteriaceae via ecological control."
Nature. 633(8031):878-886. (2024) - 4.
Kurokawa R, Masuoka H, Takayasu L, Kiguchi Y, Ogata Y, Miura-Kawatsu R, Hattori M, Suda W.:
"Recovery of microbial DNA by agar-containing solution from extremely low-biomass specimens including skin."
Sci Rep. 13(1):19666. (2023) - 5.
Takeuchi T, Kubota T, Nakanishi Y, Tsugawa H, Suda W, Kwon AT, Yazaki J, Ikeda K, Nemoto S, Mochizuki Y, Kitami T, Yugi K, Mizuno Y, Yamamichi N, Yamazaki T, Takamoto I, Kubota N, Kadowaki T, Arner E, Carninci P, Ohara O, Arita M, Hattori M, Koyasu S, Ohno H.:
"Gut microbial carbohydrate metabolism contributes to insulin resistance."
Nature. 621(7978):389-395. (2023) - 6.
Aiyoshi T, Kakihara T, Watanabe E, Tanaka N, Ogata Y, Masuoka H, Kurokawa R, Fujishiro J, Masumoto K, Suda W.:
"A comprehensive microbial analysis of pediatric patients with acute appendicitis."
J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 56(4):695-704. (2023) - 7.
Li Y, Watanabe E, Kawashima Y, Plichta DR, Wang Z, Ujike M, Ang QY, Wu R, Furuichi M, Takeshita K, Yoshida K, Nishiyama K, Kearney SM, Suda W, Hattori M, Sasajima S, Matsunaga T, Zhang X, Watanabe K, Fujishiro J, Norman JM, Olle B, Matsuyama S, Namkoong H, Uwamino Y, Ishii M, Fukunaga K, Hasegawa N, Ohara O, Xavier RJ, Atarashi K, Honda K.:
"Identification of trypsin-degrading commensals in the large intestine."
Nature. 609(7927):582-589. (2022) - 8.
Sato Y, Atarashi K, Plichta DR, Arai Y, Sasajima S, Kearney SM, Suda W, Takeshita K, Sasaki T, Okamoto S, Skelly AN, Okamura Y, Vlamakis H, Li Y, Tanoue T, Takei H, Nittono H, Narushima S, Irie J, Itoh H, Moriya K, Sugiura Y, Suematsu M, Moritoki N, Shibata S, Littman DR, Fischbach MA, Uwamino Y, Inoue T, Honda A, Hattori M, Murai T, Xavier RJ, Hirose N, Honda K.:
"Novel bile acid biosynthetic pathways are enriched in the microbiome of centenarians."
Nature. 599(7885):458-464. (2021) - 9.
Kiguchi Y, Nishijima S, Kumar N, Hattori M, Suda W.:
"Long-read metagenomics of multiple displacement amplified DNA of low-biomass human gut phageomes by SACRA pre-processing chimeric reads."
DNA Res. 28(6):dsab019. (2021) - 10.
Miyauchi E, Kim SW, Suda W, Kawasumi M, Onawa S, Taguchi-Atarashi N, Morita H, Taylor TD, Hattori M, Ohno H.:
"Gut microorganisms act together to exacerbate inflammation in spinal cords."
Nature. 585(7823):102-106. (2020)
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Wataru Suda
- Team Director
Core members
- Hiroaki Masuoka
- Research Scientist
- Rina Kurokawa
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Sho Hamaguchi
- Junior Research Associate
- Naveen Kumar
- Senior Technical Staff
- Kaoru Kaida
- Technical Staff I
- Maki Tanokura
- Technical Staff I
- Chie Shindo
- Technical Staff I
- Misa Takagi
- Technical Staff I
Contact Information
West building (W518),
1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku,
Yokohama City, Kanagawa,
230-0045, Japan
Tel: +81-(0)45-503-9302
Email: wataru.suda@riken.jp