Shigehiro Kuraku, Ph.D.

Division of Developmental Biology (Cooperative Division), Adjunct Associate Professor

Research Interests

By incorporating cutting-edge DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics, we conduct diverse original research projects on molecular evolution focusing on vertebrate developmental regulation. Our experience of contributing our molecular phylogenetic analysis to multiple international genome consortia has fueled our recent activity to enhance general understanding of biodiversity at the molecular level, which encompasses various topics in life sciences.

Research Focus

・Molecular evolution of vertebrate developmental regulation.
・Evaluation and optimization of methods for DNA sequencing and genome informatic analysis.
・Various genome-wide analyses with an emphasis on epigenomics
・Molecular information resource setup for important organisms with little existing DNA sequence information including marine vertebrates.

Recent Publication

• Nishimura O, Hara Y, Kuraku S. (2017)
  gVolante for standardizing completeness assessment of genome and transcriptome assemblies. Bioinformatics, btx445.
• Kadota M, Hara Y, Tanaka K, Takagi W, Tanegashima C, Nishimura O, Kuraku S.(2017)
  CTCF binding landscape in jawless fish with reference to Hox cluster evolution. Sci Rep, 7(1), 4957.
• Kuraku S, Feiner N, Keeley SD, Hara Y. (2016)
  Incorporating tree-thinking and evolutionary time scale into developmental biology. Dev Growth Differ., 58(1), 131-42.
• Kuraku S, Zmasek CM, Nishimura O, Katoh K. (2013)
  aLeaves facilitates on-demand exploration of metazoan gene family trees on MAFFT sequence alignment server with enhanced interactivity. Nucleic Acids Res, 41, W22-28.
• Smith JJ, Kuraku S, Holt C, …, Li W. (2013)
  Sequencing of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) genome provide insights into vertebrate evolution. Nat Genet, 45(4), 415-421.
• Kuraku S. (2013)
  Impact of asymmetric gene repertoire between cyclostomes and gnathostomes. Semin Cell Dev Biol, 24(2), 119-127.
  

Contact

Office: Phyloinformatics Unit RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, BuildingC 2F　S204

Address: 2-2-3 Minatojima-Minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Japan, 650-0047

Tel: +81-78-306-3048

FAX: +81-78-306-3048

E-mail: shigehiro.kuraku@riken.jp

Website: http://www2.clst.riken.jp/phylo/