CDB appoints new laboratory heads

July 6, 2009 – The RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) is pleased to announce the appointment of two new laboratory heads. Takashi Nishimura has joined the Center as Team Leader of the Laboratory for Growth Control Signaling, and Yuko Mimori-Kiyosue has been chosen to lead the Optical Image Analysis Unit, within the new Bioimaging Laboratory (Shigeo Hayashi; Leader).

Takashi Nishimura	Yuko Mimori-Kiyosue

Nishimura will focus on the regulation of tissue and organ growth by genetically encoded and extrinsic signals, using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. Special focus will be given to the mechanisms by which intrinsic growth and intercellular signals respond to environmental cues.

The Mimori-Kiyosue unit will provide critical support to laboratories at the CDB in the imaging of a broad range of biological processes at the cellular and molecular levels. She will also continue to use imaging technology in her own studies of the relationship between cytoskeletal elements, such as microtubules, and cell and tissue morphology.