Researcher Interviews

YOUR SWITCH TO THE FUTURE

Research Institute for Microbial Diseases (RIMD) at Osaka University

Hiroaki Miki, Professor
Yosuke Funato, Associate Professor
Osamu Hashizume, Assistant Professor

Division of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Department of Cellular Regulation

Research Outline: Analyzing the function of a membrane protein molecule called Cyclin M, which plays a role in ejecting magnesium ions from cells.

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Nikon Equipment

Supporting classroom studies with the ECLIPSE Ei

“It’s easy to teach the students how to use it, and they find it simple to use as well”

Observation utilizing microscopes plays an extremely important role in learning the basics of science. Nikon’s ECLIPSE Ei was developed as an educational-use microscope with the concept of being a ‘user-friendly microscope even for students operating it for the first time’. We visited Ms. Rika Izumi, a science teacher at Rikkyo Niiza Junior and Senior High School, Saitama, Japan, where the ECLIPSE Ei is available in the classrooms, to learn about the background and reasons for choosing this microscope, the user experience, and the reactions from students.

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The ECLIPSE Ci-L plus contributes to more comfortable clinical examinations.

“Together with the high optical performance, I realized its thoughtful design aids our daily work.”

Clinical examinations play an important role in medical care. Nikon has developed a new biological microscope, the ECLIPSE Ci-L plus, with the concept of reducing physical and mental strain on clinicians and laboratory technicians who use microscopes on a daily basis. In this interview, we talked to Dr. Akira Yoshikawa from the Department of Anatomic Pathology, Kameda Medical Center – a flagship hospital in the southern part of Chiba prefecture, Japan – on his thoughts after employing this microscope and the newly developed objective lens for microscopes ‘CFI Plan Apochromat Lambda D’ for practical everyday use.

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Associate Prof. Dr. Klazina Kooiman and Dr. Ines Beekers

Associate Prof. Dr. Klazina Kooiman, Head of Therapeutic Ultrasound Contrast Agent Group, and Dr. Ines Beekers, Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the Thoraxcenter, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands

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Reproduction Clinic Tokyo

“Finding the best sperm among the millions. For embryologists, this is the unique work of selection, and we feel a great sense of responsibility.”

Reproduction Clinic Tokyo, a fertility clinic located on the third floor of Shiodome City Center, a state-of-the-art office building in the Shiodome area of central Tokyo, has a large number of patients waiting for treatment, even in the evening on weekdays. We spoke with Shimpei Mizuta and Tomohiro Maekawa, who are using Nikon’s Ti2 inverted microscope for sperm sorting and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), about their thoughts on their work and their impressions of the Ti2.

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Dr. Yohei Yamauchi

Dr. Yohei Yamauchi, Principal Investigator, Cell biologist of viral infections, School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol, UK

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Assistant Prof. Joseph Michael Hyser & Dr. Alexandra Leigh Chang-Graham

Virology and Microbiology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas, USA

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Assistant Prof. Klazina Kooiman & Inés Beekers

Therapeutic Ultrasound Contrast Agent Group, Thoraxcenter, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam

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Dr. Steven Nedellec and Dr. Tiphaine Douanne

Dr. Steven Nedellec, Facility Manager of MicroPICell, Université de Nantes, France and Dr. Tiphaine Douanne, Universite de Nantes, Signaling in Oncogenesis, Angiogenesis and Permeability, CRCINA INSERM U1232, France

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Dr. Tadahiro Iimura

Division of Bio-Imaging, Proteo-Science Center (PROS), Ehime University
Division of Analytical Bio-Medicine, Advanced Research Support Center (ADRES), Ehime University
Graduate School of Medicine, Ehime University

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Melike Lakadamyali, Ph.D.

The advanced Fluorescence Imaging and Biophysics Group, ICFO-Institute of Photonic Sciences

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Ronald D. Vale, Ph.D.

Professor and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)
The University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, CA, USA

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Nikon Equipment

  • ECLIPSE Ti-E Inverted Microscope (see current model: ECLIPSE Ti2)
  • TIRF Illumination System

Tamas Freund, Ph.D. and Istvan Katona, Ph.D.

Institute of Experimental Medicine of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (IEM HAS)
Budapest, Hungary

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Maddy Parsons, Ph.D.

Group Leader (Royal Society University Research Fellow)
Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics
King’s College London
London, United Kingdom

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Nikon Equipment

  • A1Rsi Confocal (see current model: AX/AX R)
  • A1R-TIRF Confocal (see current model: AX/AX R)

Paul Ronald Selvin, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Nikon Equipment

  • ECLIPSE Ti-E Inverted Microscope (see current model: ECLIPSE Ti2)

Bo Huang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco

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Atsushi Miyawaki, M.D., Ph.D.

Senior Team Leader, Laboratory for Cell Function Dynamics, RIKEN Brain Science Institute

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Nikon Equipment

  • AZ-C1 macro confocal microscope system
  • 1x objective lens (AZ-Plan Apo, NA 0.1, W.D. 35 mm)
  • 2x objective lens (AZ-Plan Fluor, NA 0.2, W.D. 45 mm)

Ikuo Wada, Ph.D.

Department of Cell Science, Institute of Biomedical Science, Fukushima Medical University

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Prof. Staffan Strömblad, Ph.D.

Staffan Strömblad Ph.D. is group leader at the prestigious Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, an institution that awards the Physiology Nobel Prize yearly. He is also the head of the Live Cell Imaging Facility (LCI), in which the Nikon Center of Excellence for live cell imaging is integrate.

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Nikon Equipment

  • A1R Resonant Scanning Confocal System (see current model: AX/AX R)
  • A1 Confocal Microscope System (see current model: AX/AX R)

Dr. Arne Seitz, Dr. Romain Guiet and Thierry Laroche

The Faculty of Life Science (SV) at the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Laussane (EPFL), Switzerland, has a long record of excellence in research applied to life sciences

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Dr. Jacopo Lucci

Chief Scientific Officer at Natural Bio-Medicine SpA,
Aboca Group

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Masato Nakagawa

So-called iPS cells are attracting considerable interest as pluripotent stem cells that may open up a whole new world of medicine. The Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) at Kyoto University is pursuing a wide range of research activities that aim to realize regenerative medicine utilizing iPS cells. The Nikon BioStation CT cell culture observation system is being used in this iPS cell research and is contributing to its efficiency.

We were pleased to have had an opportunity to speak with Masato Nakagawa, who is engaged in iPS cell research at CiRA.

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Note: The institutions and job titles listed with each researcher reflect their affiliation at the time of the interview.