Collaborative Activities with Universities
and Research Institutes in Japan
NIBB-Institute of Low Temperature Science(ILTS), Hokkaido University

Accomplishment of the NIBB Priority CollaborativeResearch Project■ Project Title:
M olecular and physiological mechanisms for understanding mammalian hibernation and their comparative
analysis among species■ Co-Principal Investigators:
Prof. Yoshifumi Yamaguchi (ILTS)
Prof. Toshihiko Fujimori (NIBB)
Prof. Shuji Shigenobu (NIBB)

NIBB-Institute of Molecular Embryology andGenetics (IMEG), Kumamoto University

International Online Seminar by IMEG, Kumamoto University
IMEG at Kumamoto University has been holding a series ofmonthly seminars called “IMEG Seminar Series - The roadto global science -ˮ as part of its activities at the International
Advanced Research Center. As part of the collaborationagreement between IMEG and NIBB, NIBB members has
participated in this seminar series.
■ Seminar series:
2021 May: Jacqueline Tabler (Max Planck Institute of
Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany)
2021 June: Vikas Trivedi (EMBL Barcelona)
2021 July: Patrick PL Tam (University of Sydney, Australia)
2021 Aug: Eran Meshorer (The Hebrew University ofJerusalem, Israel)2021 Sep: Jacob H. Hanna (Weizmann Institute ofScience, Israel)2021 Oct: Kathy Niakan (The Francis Crick Institute andthe University of Cambridge, UK)
2021 Nov: Xin Chen (Johns Hopkins University, Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, USA)2021 Dec: Peter K. Todd (University of Michigan, USA)2022 Jan: Peter S. Zammit (King’s College London, UK)
2022 Feb: John B. Wallingford (University of Texas atAustin, USA)2022 Mar: Qi-Long Ying (University of South California,USA)

NIBB-Institute of Advanced Medical Sciences(IAMS), Tokushima University

NIBB- IAMS, Tokushima University, joint seminar“Toward Strengthening Collaboration and Cooperation”
Following the collaboration agreement between NIBBand IAMS, a joint seminar was held on October 22, 2021,
to strengthen cooperation and budding new collaborative
research between the two institutions. The seminar introduced
the facilities and equipment of both institutes, as well as efforts
for their joint usage/research programs. A total of 76 people
attended the seminar, 49 from NIBB and 27 from IAMS.
After the seminar, an opinion exchange meeting was heldwith the participation of directors and faculty from bothsides. They actively discussed future cooperation and col-laboration in joint usage/research programs, the exchangeof technologies and methods in which both sides havestrengths, and training and exchanging of staff involvedin the implementation and operation of the joint usage/
research programs. This would be the first step toward deepening cooperation between NIBB and IAMS and leading to
the development of collaborative research and joint usage/
research programs between the two institutes in the future.
■ Seminar information:
Presentation from NIBB
Kiyokazu Agata (Introduction of NIBB)
Shuji Shigenobu (Introduction of NGS and mass spectrometry analyses)
Yasuhiro Kamei (Introduction of bioimaging analysis)
Eiji Watanabe (Introduction of model animal researchfacility)■ Presentation from IAMS
Hidetaka Kosako (Introduction of mass spectrometry analysis)
Tomohide Saio (Introduction of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis)
Yosuke Matsushita (Introduction of NGS analysis)
Tatsuya Takemoto (Introduction of genome editing analysis)

NIBB-Institute for Molecular and Cellular
Regulation, Gunma University
Agreement of Cooperation with IMCR, Gunma University
NIBB and IMCR at Gunma University have signed an agreement of cooperation which is deemed effective from April 7,
2021. To prevent the further spread of COVID-19 infection,
the signing ceremony was held in a remote capacity via anonline connection between Maebashi and Okazaki.

Dr. Kiyokazu Agata, the Director-General of NIBB, and Dr. Ken Sato, theDirector of IMCR, singing the agreement.

This agreement aims to promote mutual collaborative activities in the capacity of research and education centers thatlead the way in world class, cutting edge research in the fieldof endocrinology, metabolism research and basic biology, as
well as to utilize the results of these activities for research ona mutual basis. It also strengthens the support infrastructure
for collaborative use and research nationwide, and to stimulate international academic exchange.
As part of the collaboration agreement, Director-general
Kiyokazu Agata and Prof. Takashi Ueda present theirresearch activities in the 7th IMCR Symposium that was heldat September 9-10.

113

NIBB-Chubu University

The 3rd Chubu University-NIPS-NIBB joint seminar “AIto Life System”
NIBB and NIPS have been promoting exchanges of personnel and information with Chubu University through jointseminars on the theme of "AI to Life System" since the fallof 2021, aiming for emergence through interdisciplinary
research and the discovery and cultivating of young researchers. The first joint seminar was hosted by Chubu University
in November 2021, and the 2nd seminar was organized by
NIPS in January 2022.
On March 28, 2022, NIBB organized the 3rd joint seminar
held as a hybrid meeting with Zoom online system at theOkazaki Conference Center. In addition to the lectures ofongoing research utilizing AI analysis methods at each institute,a small group discussion was held to promote new collaborative research between the three institutes. The group discussions
were divided into two categories, "technology" and "science".
In each category, four topics were set up, and researchers andstudents discussed each topic separately. This event helped todeepen mutual understanding between information science andlife science, and promoted the budding of collaboration researchleading to the "elucidation of life systems using AI.

The NIBB Genome Informatics
Training Course

The NIBB Core Research Facilities regularly organizes
a series of training courses on the most recently developed research techniques. The NIBB Genome Informatics
Training Course (GITC) is specially designed for biologists
who are unfamiliar with bioinformatics. In 2021, we held
two sets of training courses on RNA-seq analysis. Eachversion of the RNA-seq analysis course was basically madeup of two 2-day programs: one being a preparatory course(Introduction to NGS Analysis) concerning the basics ofUNIX and R, and the other a practical course (Introductionto RNA-seq) for learning about the pipelines to RNA-seq
analysis using next-generation sequencing data. These GITC
courses offered lectures and hands-on tutorials. This year, allcourses were held online to prevent the spread of COVID-19
infection. By virtue of the online system, we expanded thecourse audiences by accepting some of them as “auditors”
who could receive only limited support during the hands-onpractice.

Introduction to RNA-seq: From theBasics of NGS to de novo Analyses■ O rganizers: Dr. Shuji Shigenobu and Dr. Ikuo
Uchiyama (NIBB Core Research Facilities)■ Lecturers: Dr. Shuji Shigenobu, Dr. Ikuo Uchiyama,
Dr. Masanao Sato (Hokkaido Univ.), Dr. Katsushi
Yamaguchi, Ms. Hiroyo Nishide, Mr. TakanoriNakamura, Mr. Hiroki Sugiura (NIBB Core
Research Facilities)

August 25 (Thu)–26 (Fri), 2021
Opening remarks by Dr, Kiyokazu Agata, the Director-General of NIBB.

Group discussion on the topics of gene and protein.

■ Seminar information
LecturesTakashi Ueda (NIBB)
Junichi Chikazoe (NIPS)
Seine Shintani (Chubu University)■ Group discussion
1) Technology: Computer vision, Robotics, fMRI, andElectron Microscopy.
2) Science: Gene and protein, Cell, Brain and sensory,and Brain and behavior.

114(Practical Course) Introduction to NGS Analysis:
Basics of UNIX, R, and NGS■ 31 participants and 16 auditors (including 2 from NIBB)■ Program:
1. UNIX for Beginners
2. Introduction to “R”
3. Introduction to Statistics
4. NGS Basic Data Formats and NGS Basic Tools
5. Editor and Scripts
6. Text Processing
7. Exercises

September 15 (Thu)–16 (Fri), 2021
(Practical Course) RNA-seq Analysis Pipeline■ 28 participants and 16 auditors (including 3 from NIBB)■ Program:
1. Introduction to RNA-seq
2. NGS Basic Data Format and Basic Tools
3. Visualization of NGS Data
4. RNA-seq Pipelines: Genome-Based andTranscriptome-Based Approaches
5. Multivariate Statistics
6. Functional Annotation and Gene Ontology
7. Exercises