Overview of the Research Unit for Quantitative and Imaging Biology (QIB)

The purpose and activities of the IRCC-AFP research unit

Princeton University in the USA and National Institutes of Natural Sciences have pursed collaboration and cooperation program in various research fields under a comprehensive agreement between two institutes. In particular, the collaboration and cooperation in the life science filed has been promoted since around 2016, and National Institute for Basic Biology conducted the collaboration research of the developmental biology with Princeton University through the "NINS Strategic International Research Exchange Promotion Program".​ ​

Princeton University leads the life science research field, and the Department of Molecular Biology at the university plays a central role for it. The Lewis-Sigler Institute that is established around 2014 has been promoting cutting-edge research in the quantitative biology filed. Professor Michael Levine and other institute members are incorporating new mathematical analysis methods into genomics and imaging methods.

With this in mind, adding the advantage at Princeton University in quantitative biology to the existing collaboration and cooperation in the life sciences between the two institute, we have jointly set strategic goals for the next generation of quantitative and imaging biology, Toward this end, as of April 1, 2019, we established the Division of Quantitative and Imaging Biology at the IRCC (IRCC-QIB) to conduct international collaborative research with Princeton University under the agreement. In the collaboration and cooperation activity at the IRCC-QIB, researchers not only from the National Institute for Basic Biology, but also from the National Institute of Physiological Science and the Institute of Molecular Sciences have jointed.

Activity list

(1) Set scientific strategic goals for next-generation quantitative and imaging biology, and based on these, international collaboration of life sciences between Princeton University and National Institutes of Natural Sciences through systematic collaboration.​ ​

＜ Research Subject ＞

Collaborative research on life science using quantitative biological methods (cellular / developmental biology, brain imaging, etc.)

Development of new methods for quantitative and imaging biology and joint research for that purpose (single-molecule imaging, etc.)

(2) Organization of IRCC-QIB workshop

(3) Implementation of personnel exchanges