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Vol. 10View Hiroshima University's
latest news and high-impact
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FEBRUARY 2020

ABOUT US

WINTER CAMPUS PHOTOS

Embodying its founding principle of“a single unified university, free and pursuing peace,” Hiroshima University is
one of the largest comprehensive research universities in Japan. Today, HU
is making steady progress as a global
university, taking on worldwide challenges and strengthening its global educational network by signing international
exchange agreements with universities
around the world and opening overseas
bases at strategic locations.

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATECONTENTS
COVER IMAGE
Student Plaza — Higashi-Hiroshima Campus

RECENT NEWS03 The 92nd HU Lecture Meeting

Ms. Setsuko Thurlow, Atomic Bomb Survivor

04

05

06 New Facilities at HU

International Collaborations
and Activities●

Meeting with the Vice President of Indonesia●

The School of Dentistry's Short-term Stay
Program 2019

Community-oriented tourism in Mitarai, Seto
Inland Sea- Student Symposium●

Triple-helix Seminar on “Food and Healthcare
in Singapore”

One Café -Welcome Desk●

Fukuyama-Tsuun-Komaru Nigiwai Pavilion

07 It's Matsuri Time!

Symposiums and Seminars at HU●●●

International students experience the“Yoshiura Autumn Crab Festival”●“Sake Festival” at Saijo, “The Sake Town”

RESEARCH FOCUS
Most Prolific Researchers
08 15
Publishing of Gene Editing

12

Graduate School for International Development
and Cooperation

Two HU researchers stand out for their papers
on genome editing

modified mice can show
09 Geneticallywhich functional foods can heal
kidney disease

Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life10

How people trick themselves into thinking something is heavier than it really is
Graduate School of Engineering

11

The World of Kakuhitsu

12

New species of shrimp-like creatures
discovered in the mouth of a whale
shark

School of Letters

Graduate School of Education

The world’s first “Self-driving Bus
Pilot Test” on a tramway.

13

There's a New Squid in Town—OIST x HU

14

Coherent control of an atom bysynchrotron radiation

Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life

Hiroshima Synchrotron Radiation Center

14

Inhibiting mitochondrial protein TSPO
for antidepressant effectGraduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences

15

Successful Development of “Single
Molecule Electret”
Graduate School of Science

15

HU: Most frequently-featured
university in Japan in the articles of
QS WOW NEWSRECENT NEWSMs.
Setsuko
Thurlow“Crawl towards
the LightPursuing a
World without
NuclearWeapons”
The 92nd Hiroshima
University Lecture Meeting

Ms. Setsuko Thurlow receiving a letter of appreciation by
President Mitsuo Ochi after the lecture

On November 18th, 2019, Ms. Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of theatomic blasts in Hiroshima and theleading figure of ICAN, which won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017,came to HU. She kindly accepted
HU’s invitation and delivered a lecture on peace based on her experiences at Higashi-Hiroshima Campus.
In the lecture, Ms. Thurlow told theaudience how the words of a man
shouting “Don’t give up! See thelight? Crawl towards it” saved herlife when she found herself trappedin the smoldering rubble after thebombing.
As a living witness to the horrors of
nuclear war, she fully understands
the trauma of the atomic bomb survivors and it is hard to openly talkabout such a painful event. However, during the lecture, she emphasized that the bomb survivors
should be encouraged to share theirexperiences with the people in theworld. This is because “People
around the world should be given
more opportunities to hear about thestories of the atomic bomb survivors
and learn from their experiences.”
During her lecture, she openly expressed her big disappointment at
the Japanese government’s decisionof not ratifying the nuclear weapons
treaty. This is because Ms. Thurlow
has been working for decades todraw people’s attention to the catastrophic consequences of nuclear
weapons to humanity and campaigning for the total ban of nuclear
weapons.
Ms. Thurlow concluded her lectureby asking the audience to reflect on
the catastrophic damage nuclear
weapons have caused in the pastand to take actions for the total elimination of them from the world.

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

3

RECENT NEWSInternational
Collaboration
Meeting with
the Vice
Presidentof Indonesia
Hiroshima University x
Indonesia

On February 6th, 2019, Hiroshima
University’s President, Mitsuo Ochi,
and Executive Vice President Toshiyuki Sato had a meeting with Indonesia’s Vice President, Dr. Muhammad
Jusuf Kalla, at his residence in Jakarta. In February 2018, Dr. Kalla paid avisit to HU, and this time President
Ochi visited Indonesia’s capital tomeet the Vice President.

During the meeting, President Ochi
explained how successful higher education institutions in Indonesia andHU have been in building up good
relationships in the past. He exemplified this by referring to the fact that
HU and Indonesian universities havebeen actively engaged in the student/
academic exchanges for decades,
and that ex-Indonesian students of
HU are back to their home towns,
playing active and important roles intheir communities. Vice President
Kalla expressed his hopes for HU tofurther expand academic exchanges
between the two countries.
HU is determined to continue its efforts to further promote academic
exchanges so as to strengthen its
partnership with higher education
institutions in Indonesia.
Currently, 151 Indonesian students
are studying at HU. It is the secondlargest number of international students received at HU after China.

International University
University of Health Sciences
University of Puthisastra

Indonesia

PARTICIPANTS .

School of Dentistry Receiving
Asian Students for

Cambodia

University of Christian Maranatha
Padjadjaran University
University of Prof. Dr. Moestopo
Indonesia University
Airlangga University

Thailand
Mahidol University

TaiwanTaipei Medical University

Vietnam
University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi
Minh City
Hong Bang International University

Malaysia
University of Malaya

Vice President Kalla (left) and
President Ochi (right) during the meeting

The Short-term Stay
Program 2019Students from Indonesia studying at
Hiroshima University

International
Students
Activities

November 11th– 19th, 2019

This 10-day program serves as a dental exchange program, organized by
the School of Dentistry at Hiroshima University where it receives students
specialized in either dentistry, dental hygiene, or dental technique from ourpartner universities, mainly located in South East Asia.
By attending this program, students are expected to learn the importance of
mutual understanding and multicultural communities, and harmonious coexistence for the countries in Asia, which will lead to building up a more solid
relationship between the institutions in Asia and HU. The program organizer
strongly believes that this program can be used to enhance its global network even further for the purpose of implementing dental research, education, and practices.
This year, 22 students of 13 partner universities from 6 countries have visited the School of Dentistry to attend the 10-Day Program, participating insome lectures which are available both in Japanese and English. They also
had a guided tour of Hiroshima University Hospital.
HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

4

Symposiums
and Seminars
at HU
Taoyaka Program
Student Symposium“Communityoriented tourism
in Mitarai, Seto
Inland Sea”
For a disadvantaged region such as
small islands on the Seto Inland Sea,
which are facing the problem of depopulation and aging, going for sustainable tourism development may be oneof the possible solutions to revitalizing
local communities. On August 25th,
2019, a student symposium was jointly
held by “Taoyaka Program for creating
a flexible, enduring, peaceful society--Organization of the Leading Graduate
Education Program” at Hiroshima University and Kure city in Hiroshima Prefecture, attracting around 80 participants including the local people of Mitarai in Kure city. The first part of thesymposium was a presentation session
where the participating students report-

RECENT NEWSed their research findings following
their onsite training in Mitarai between
August 17th and 25th. The second partof the symposium saw a panel discussion by a selected group of panelists
from Japan and overseas.
During the onsite training, the student
groups from Japan, India and the United States interviewed the local people
to ascertain what kind of difficulties
they were facing in Mitarai. The task
involved with this interview was twofold: 1) To hear the voices of the local
people and identify the issues involved,2) To come up with practical suggestions/solutions for the identified issues.
During the presentation session, thegroups came up with a total of six suggestions/solutions, which were taken
up for comments and discussions by
the panelists and audience in the symposium.

ful community-based challenges madein the world. During the panel discussion, the panelists exchanged a wide
range of opinions regarding the future
development of Mitarai, while making
sure to strike a balance between theeconomic activities and the environmental sustainability in Mitarai. In addition, the panelists exchanged opinions
regarding what was expected of HU in
terms of its contributions to scienceand technology and the local communities.

Following the presentation by the students, a panel discussion entitled“Community Planning in Beautiful Harmony with Nature, Culture and History”
was held with Professor Fujiwara from
HU acting as the moderator. The Panelists shared with the audience examples of both successful and unsuccess-The symposium was concluded by theremarks of Mr. Shinhara, the mayor ofKure city, emphasizing that more futurecollaboration with the academia is necessary, but equally, maintaining regulardialogue with the local people of Mitarai through educational activities isimportant.

Triple-helix
Seminar on“Food and
Healthcare”
in Singapore
On October 15th, 2019, Hiroshima University held a second triple-helix seminar on “Food and Healthcare” at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
In the seminar, Prof. Tadashi
Shimamoto, Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life at Hiroshima
University, first gave a brief overview
of the Hiroshima University ResearchCenter for Japanese Foods, and thenpresented his research on the inactivation of noroviruses with persimmon
tannin and the development of antiviraldisinfectants. Mr. Toru Tsuji at Altan
Co. Ltd., a research collaborator ofProf. Shimamoto also delivered aavailable in Singapore. Following that,
Associate Prof. Sze Siu-Kwan Newman gave a talk entitled “The proteomics unraveling the health benefits ofsoy bioactive lunasin in fresh and processed foods”. Dr. Newman’s presentation was interesting as his research
After that, two researchers from Nanshowed that the disappearance andyang Technological University spoke
reduction of soy protein effects areabout two interesting topics. Prof.
regulated by processing conditions
James P. Tam, Synzymes and Natural
such as temperature.
Products Center, gave a lecture on“Traditional medicines and functional Following the seminar, the speakers
foods”, in which he covered topics in- and participants were still busy netcluding drug development, synthesis, working with each other, further disand research of orally active peptides cussing topics covered in the symposiusing all the available medicinal herbs um.
5
and a huge library of plants and herbs
presentation on the anti-virus products
developed through collaborative research with Hiroshima University. Mr.
Tsuji handed out a variety of productsamples to the participants, which led
to a lively Q&A session.

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATERECENT NEWSNEW FACILITIES AT HU
One Cafe
This is a new cafe opened on HigashiHiroshima Campus where students, faculty
and administrative members can relax andenjoy a good coffee.
The “Welcome Desk” is a space at One Cafe
where international students, faculty andadministrative members can discuss their
daily life problems in English with university
staff. This is also a place where home students who are interested in studying abroad
can obtain information about international
exchange programs.

Fukuyama-Tsuun-Komaru
Nigiwai* Pavilion
This is a new multi-purpose facility
launched recently, which can be used as
spaces for self-studying and entrepreneurship projects, as well as for consuming foodand drinks. HU is keen to support voluntary
activities of HU students and expects thepavilion to enhance HU students’ learning
environment.
With its construction undertaken by Yamane Holdings Co., Ltd., the Pavilion was donated by Fukuyama Transporting Co., Ltd.
and The Shibuya Ikueikai Foundation.
*Nigiwai is a Japanese word, which literallymeans “bustle”

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

6

RECENT NEWS

It's

MatsuriTime!

International Students
Experience Matsuri“Yoshiura Autumn
Crab Festival”

On October 5th, 2019, a party of international exchange students from the“Hiroshima University Study Abroad Program” (HUSA 2019-2020) visited the Yoshiura Autumn Crab Festival held in Kure
City, led by Associate Professor Tsunematsu from HU’s Morito Institute of
Global Higher Education.

and interacted with the locals while enjoying the lively event.
The variety of colorful and interesting
Mikoshi, or portable shrines, and the fishing boat which is built for praying for good
harvest and fishing, were some of themost intriguing things for students. Withthe “Sô-rya sageta” call, a shout of encouragement to lift the dedication, people
carried these very heavy Mikoshi and fishing boat on their backs. Seeing these people’s energy and vigor deeply touched theheart of the international students.

This festival or Matsuri in Japanese isorganized every year by the local community Yoshiura, in Kure-city as a dedication
to Yoshiura Hachiman Shrine. The participating international students from various
countries and with different backgrounds
The Yoshiura Autumn Crab festival was a
had an opportunity to experience one of
one-of-a-kind experience for the internaJapan’s many appealing cultural exprestional students to enjoy Japan, its culturesions: Matsuri. They tried some local foodand traditions!

HU Students Enjoying“Sake Festival” at
Saijo, “The Sake Town”
Higashi-Hiroshima City's Saijo district isfamous throughout Japan as a leadingsake brewing town. It is in this district thatthe annual “Sake Festival” was held on
October 12th and 13th, 2019.
The “Sake Festival” or “Sake Matsuri”
draws people from all over Japan and has
also gained international popularity in recent years. During the festival, visitors
walk around the neighborhood of JR Saijo
Station as many sake breweries are within the walking distance from the station,and participate in brewery hopping. During the hopping, visitors can taste the different types of Japanese sake and enjoy
delicious food.
Saijo district is not only the hometown forthe leading sake breweries, but also it iswhere Hiroshima University’s main campus
is located. So many international students
at HU go to the festival. Mr. Gabriel Fonteles, a Ph.D. student from Brazil, and Ms.
Chang Boya, an undergraduate exchange
student from China, participated in the“Sake Festival” this year and shared someof their experiences with us. They both enjoyed the food and drinks at the event andwere impressed with the mass of people
that gathered around Saijo. “Sake Matsuri
is not an event that you would find in ourcountries”, they said. Ms. Chang liked how
the Matsuri’s stage and music reflected theJapanese culture, and Mr. Fonteles foundit interesting that they had Brazilian food at
the Matsuri, a way to connect Japanesepeople with other countries.
HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

7RESEARCH FOCUS

Two HU researchers
stand out inNature Biotechnology's

TAKASHI YAMAMOTO
Professor

Two researchers from Hiroshima University were on the list: Professor Takashi Yamamoto in 2nd place and Associate Professor Tetsushi Sakuma in
5th place.

“15 Most Prolific
In the article, researchers from China,
Researchers
the United States, and Australia colPublishing on
lected and analyzed over 15,000 articles and reviews published since 2000
Gene Editing”
related to genome editing. Professor●

Professor
Takashi Yamamoto (2nd place)●

Associate Professor
Tetsushi Sakuma (5th place)

On October 2nd, 2019, Nature Biotechnology published an article titled“Collaborative networks in gene editing.” The article included a ranking listof the 15 most prolific researchers who
have published on genome editing
around the world.

Feng Zhang was ranked 1st place with
105 papers, followed by Professor Takashi Yamamoto in 2nd place with 91
papers, Professor Jennifer Doudna in
3rd place with 85, Professor Jin-Soo
Kim in 4th place with 81, and Associate
Professor Tetsushi Sakuma in 5thplace with 78 papers.
Professor Feng Zhang and Professor
Jennifer Doudna received the Canada
Gairdner International Award in 2016,
and Thomson Reuters predicts them to
be Noble Prize winners in the near future. In the article, both professors ofHiroshima University were also highly
regarded as world-class researchers.

-Genome Editing
Innovation Center-Graduate School ofIntegrated Sciences for LifeTETSUSHI SAKUMA
Associate Professor-Graduate School ofIntegrated Sciences for LifeCHECK IT OUT
Find more information about Hiroshima
University's doctoral programs ingenome editing:
WISE Program (Doctoral Program
for World-Leading Innovative &Smart Education
The Frontier
Development
Program for
Genome Editing
https://genome.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en/index.html

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

8RESEARCH FOCUS

Graduate School ofIntegrated Sciencesfor Life
Associate Professor
Noriyuki Yanaka
Assistant Professor
Thanutchaporn Kumrungsee“Geneticallymodified mice
can show whichfunctional foods
can heal kidneydisease”
Scientists create a mouse model thatcan show kidney disease progression
and treatment in live animals.

Researchers at Hiroshima University
used genetically engineered mice toshow the severity and progression of
kidney disease and recovery during
treatment in a new paper publishedin Scientific Reports in October.
Chronic kidney disease affects 750
million people each year. Aging populations and an increase in diseases
such as diabetes will lead to a greater burden of kidney disease. In general, when doctors want to check if apatient has kidney disease, theymust do so by a blood test or by biopsy. This is usually only feasible
when the disease is in its later stages. By then it might be too late totreat, and the patients may have toundergo transplant or dialysis.
“So far, there is no method for
imaging or visualizing of kidneydisease in the early stage in bothhuman and experimental animals.
Our paper is the first to propose
this solution. This method can let
you see how severe the kidneydisease is by observing the lightemitted from the mice when they
still alive,”says Assistant Professor Thanutchaporn Kumrungsee, Graduate
School of Integrated Life Sciences,
Hiroshima University.

Visualization of kidney disease and therapy by the citrus fruit-derived compound treatment.
The genetically engineered mice were anesthetized and put in a prone position under an imaging
system machine that allowed us to visualize severity of kidney disease in live animals. Severe
kidney disease was clearly seen as a strong light signal from the picture in the center. Treatment
with G-Hes showed a decrease in kidney injury and thus a weaker light signal.
Credit: Associate Professor Noriyuki Yanaka and Assistant Professor Thanutchaporn Kumrungsee

In 2016, the team of Associate Professor Noriyuki Yanaka and Asst.
Professor Kumrungsee developed anon-invasive method for monitoring
obesity-caused inflammation to reduce the number of mice killed duringexperimentation.

fruit: glucosyl hesperidin (G-Hes).
After treating mice with G-Hes forthree days, then feeding them theadenine diet for 3 weeks the researchers observed a decrease in
the amount of inflammation seen in
the kidneys, also confirmed through ablood test. Using this engineeredmouse, the team was able to observe
the kidneys at 1, 2 and 3 weeks into
the diet and treatment without terminating the mice, reducing the numberof mice required for the experiments.

The mice were engineered with alight-emitting gene that glowed whena protein was present at high levels.
This protein (Saa3) is produced inhigh amounts during inflammation or
injury so can be a useful biomarker ofIn the future, the team would like todisease.
perform drug screening by using thisIn the present study, to monitor dismodel to prevent kidney disease inease progression and therapy Prof.
the early stages.
Yanaka’s team fed mice a highadenine diet to cause kidney disease.
The high levels of adenine caused Original article: Kumrungsee, T., etcrystals (like kidney stones) to devel- al., The serum amyloid A3 promoterop, leading to inflammation and in- driven luciferase reporter mice is acreased levels of Saa3. The mice valuable tool to image early renal
emitted light from their kidneys when fibrosis development and shows theunder these injury conditions. The therapeutic effect of glucosylteam have proposed this mouse mod- hesperidin treatment, Sci. Rep. 9,
el as a useful tool for monitoring kid- 14101 (2019).
ney disease progression and thera- Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598peutic agent screening.
019-50685-0
The researchers then screened possible treatment options and observed
a promising chemical found in citrus
HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

9RESEARCH FOCUS
Graduate
School ofEngineering“How people
trick themselves
into thinking
something isheavier than it
really is”
Hiroshima University x
Nagoya Institute of Technology

Holding a steering wheel at
different arm positions can influence
how much force we think we need tosteer

In a recent study published in PLOS
One researchers from Hiroshima
University and Nagoya Institute ofTechnology found that if you holdyour car steering wheel at certain
angles (1, 4, or 5 on the clock) thenit’s likely you’re over or underestimating how much force you need to use
to steer the car.
There are many factors that go into
how we perceive an object’s weight.
Gravity, fatigue and sensory information such as color and texture arerelayed to our brains and form ourideas of how heavy or large something is. Using this information, we
calculate how much effort we need topick something up or move it around.
This is called force perception. Professor Yuichi Kurita and Mr. Yusuke
Kishishita from the Biological System
Engineering Lab, Graduate School ofEngineering, Hiroshima University
and Associate Professor Yoshihiro
Tanaka from Nagoya Institute ofTechnology were interested in how
sense of effort influenced force perceptual bias.
“Force perceptual bias is the misprediction of actual events. Almost allof the illusion is based on the gap
between the prediction and the reality. For example, an object’s color canmake it look bigger or smaller, so we
predict that it is light or heavy before
touching it,” explains Yusuke Kishishita, lead author of the paper. “Black
makes objects look smaller whilelight colors make them look bigger,”.
Darker colors make objects appear
small, so they are heavier than expected and vice versa for light objects.

Biological Systems
Engineering Lab,
Hiroshima University
Official Website
http://www.bsys.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en

Most of our daily activities require us
to have correct force perception including picking up a cup of tea, closing a door or driving. Incorrectly assuming how much force is needed toaccelerate a little faster can lead toan accident. Force perception also
affects how we steer the car. Arm
position changes the way we use ourmuscles to perform tasks. An uncomfortable or strange position can makeour sense of effort feel higher or low-er, thus the object feels lighter or
heavier than it actually is.
“When we drive, we don’t see thesteering angle but we have to make adecision on how much force to use…
if the bias affects the force perceptionthat could cause us to badly control
the steering wheel,” says Kishishita.
This study used a weighted steering
wheel where participants performed
actions with it using one hand. The
position of the arm was changed tosee if the subjects perceived the resistance as greater or lesser whencompared to a neutral posture (0 o).
The modified positions were at 30o,
60o, -60o and -30o (similar to hands
pointing to 1, 2, 4 and 5 on the clock).
The participants were asked to perform a task using the steering wheeland differing weights. The researchteam used 3D motion capture to lookat the posture and used algorithms tomodel the data. Using this method,
the researchers could look at thewhole arm and torso posture. Participants were also asked about how
heavy the steering wheel was whencompared to the neutral position.
They reported a large change in theamount of force used at 30o, -60o
and -30o i.e. these angles were themost biased.
“If we consider this bias, we canmake cars safer to drive also give us
a good feeling while driving,” says
Kishishita.
Research in this area can also be
useful for safety, like designing machines that account for this bias toreduce the number of human errors
as well as for entertainment such as
improving virtual reality environments.
Original article: Kishishita Y, Tanaka
Y, Kurita Y (2019) Force perceptual
bias caused by muscle activity in unimanual steering. PLoS ONE 14(10):e0223930.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1371/
journal.pone.0223930

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

10The World of

Kakuhitsu

Interview toProfessor Emeritus
Yoshinori Kobayashi
Prof. Kobayashi was the first person who has discovered an ancient document in which characters were written using a Kakuhitsu (a stylus that produces depressions to create letters and marks). Having steadily pursued
his research on ancient documents regarding Kakuhitsu for more than 50
years, Prof. Kobayashi found out that the stylus-impressed literature existed not only in Japan but also in China, the Korean Peninsula, and Europe.
Having lived past the age of 90, Prof. Kobayashi is still passionate about
his research.
Encounter with the stylus - Kakuhitsu
As my research subject concerns history of Kanbun Kundoku (Japanesereading of Classical Chinese by literal translation), I used to visit ancient
temples in Kyoto and Nara in search of my research materials. My firstencounter with the Kakuhitsu was in 1961 when some Classical Chinesewriting was discovered in a temple in Koyasan. The writing was put on
display at the exhibition in the temple. When I saw it, I happened to noticethat there were some symbols, looking like nail marks, next to some Chinese characters. Since these marks were colorless, i.e. no ink was used,
they had been completely overlooked by other researchers until then.

Profile: Born in Yamanashi Prefecture in
1929. Worked at Hiroshima University for
72 years. Received the Japan Academy
Prize and the Imperial Prize in 1991. Retired and became a Professor Emeritus ofHiroshima University in 1992. Awardee of a
“Person of Cultural Merit” in 2019, an official Japanese honor and recognition awarded annually to select people who havemade outstanding cultural contributions.

What did these stylus-impressed marks mean?
The stylus-impressed documents were in use from the Nara to the Edo
period, and most marks were there to show how to read Classical Chinese texts. I found letters, old documents and even mokkan (wooden
tablets) that were stylus-impressed. I think that people from that timeused to write and read with this stylus while using the candle light.
More or less, I have come to understand the possible reasons behindusing the stylus. The beauty of Kakuhitsu is that the writing (charactersand marks) did not stand out, which means that it was not used forformal documents or writings, but for personal use (e.g. when you
leave comments or messages on a paper). I also came across the
spoken Japanese and slang words in those periods on the stylusimpressed documents.

Is the culture of Kakuhitsu unique to East Asia?

“I believe that approaching ancient
documents from the viewpoint ofKakuhitsu will lead to the discovery
of more unknown techniques andtraditions of different cultures. I
hope and expect Hiroshima
University to lead the international
research communities regarding
Kakuhitsu on ancient documents”
Yoshinori Kobayashi

My research at the British Museum proved that the stylus was also in
use across Europe. On the hand-printed bibles assembled in the 11thand 12th century, I came across ancient letters, signs and picturesthat seemed to have been written with a stylus. I also saw similarmarks in The Koran. Therefore, it seems that the Kakuhitsu was inuse not only in East Asia but also in Europe and the Middle East.
However, this research has just begun.

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

11RESEARCH FOCUS

Graduate
School of
Education
Associate Professor
Ko Tomikawa“New speciesof shrimp-likecreatures
discovered in
the mouth of awhale shark”
A new species of amphipods,
Prodocerus jinbe, were found in themouth of a whale shark, one of thelargest species of fish in the ocean.
Associate Professor Ko Tomikawa ofHiroshima
University’s
Graduate
School of Education, found the new
species of amphipods in the mouth ofa whale shark through the international collaboration with the Okinawa
Churaumi Aquarium and the University of Tromsø in Norway. The new
species was officially named Prodocerus jinbe, and it was the first record
ever of an amphipod associated withthe whale shark. Professor Tomikawa
thinks that these amphipods reside in
the mouth of the whale shark because it is a comfortable habitat to be
in: fresh seawater and food flowing in
regularly and providing a safe placeagainst predators.
He thinks that he should be able toclarify some of the mysteries surrounding the evolution of the habitatsof small invertebrates in the future by
studying the ecology, distribution andgenetic structure of the Prodocerus
jinbe. This research paper was published on Species Diversity (25 October 2019), a journal of the JapaneseSociety of Systematic Zoology.

New species Prodocerus jinbe
Original article:
Tomikawa, K., Yanagisawa, M., Higashiji,T., Yano, N.& Vader, W. (2019) A New
Species of Podocerus (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Podoceridae) Associated with the
Whale Shark Rhincodon typus. Species
Diversity 24(2), 209-216.
Link: https://doi.org/10.12782/
specdiv.24.209

Graduate School forInternational
Development andCooperation

The world’s
On November 17 , 2019, Hiroshima University
first “Selfconducted a pilot test of a self-driving bus on
driving Bus
the tramway operated by the Hiroshima Electric
Pilot Test”
Railway in Hiroshima city. This is the first time
on a tramway that an automatically-operated bus has beenthtested on a tramway in the world.
The experiment was a part of the research entitled “Measuring value of mobility inthe age of quality transport” led by the Committee on Advanced Road Technology(CART) of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
The self-driving bus is equipped with several sensors and cameras that are capable of measuring and monitoring the distance between the two vehicles. By collecting and analyzing the monitor survey data, the findings will be used to improve
the level of convenience of the bus in question. During the test, the self-driving bus
with a monitor ran on the tramway of “Eba Line” of the Hiroshima Electric Railway,
going after a streetcar for 225 meters at a maximum speed of 15 km/h. The test
runs were repeated 10 times between 0:10 and 4:20 including the pilot runs.
“This is a groundbreaking experiment of which findings can be fed back to thetechnology and implemented into society”, said Akimasa Fujiwara, Professor at
the Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation of HU, at theinterview.
HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

12RESEARCH FOCUS
Graduate School ofIntegrated Sciencesfor Life“There is a
New Squid inTown”
Original texts and photos by

Okinawa Institute of
Science and Technology
Graduate University (OIST)
Edited by Hiroshima University

Researchers have identified a new
species of bobtail squid inhabiting
Okinawa’s waters

Researchers in the Okinawa Instituteof Science and Technology Graduate
University’s Molecular Genetics Unit,
in collaboration with a researcher
from Australia, have identified a new
species of bobtail squid inhabiting
Okinawa’s waters – dubbed Euprymna brenneri in honor of the late Dr.
Sydney Brenner, molecular geneticist
and one of the founders of OIST, who
passed away earlier this year. The
scientists’ findings, published in Communications Biology, highlight the richbiodiversity in the seas near Okinawa,
and may shed light on the genes, behavior, and development of bobtail
squid.

From their analyses, the scientists
confirmed they had found a new species, which they named Euprymna
brenneri. This species is the eleventh
known in the Euprymna genus and will
be useful in future phylogenetic andcomparative studies, the researchers
said Gustavo Sanchez, currently an said.
Assistant Professor at Hiroshima UniIn addition to phylogeny, the scientists
versity, lead author of the study.
are interested in the bobtail squid’s
Bobtails have unique features fromtrue squid, including their rounded or“bobbed” posteriors, earning them thenickname “dumpling squid.” In fact,
they are actually more closely related
to cuttlefish. Bobtails can be raised in
the laboratory, making them useful asmodel for studying cephalopod development, genetics, and behavior. Scientists have also observed advanced
behaviors like associative learningand inherited personality and fitness
traits in bobtails.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-0190661-6

One Ryukyuan type of bobtail remained. In addition to sequencing its
transcriptome, the scientists closely
analyzed its morphology; Jeff Jolly
observed distinctive patterns of suckers on its arms and tentacles. The researchers enlisted the help of systematist Dr. Amanda Reid, from the Australian Museum in Sydney, to carefully
look over the species and formally describe them.

“Our research strives to understandhow these animals’ complicatedbrains work… We’re also compelled
to explore why there is such a wide
variety of species off the coast of
Okinawa.”

Finding and classification

Original article
Sanchez, G., Jolly, J., Reid, A., Sugimoto,C., Azama, C., Marlétaz, F., Simakov, O.,
Rokhsar, D., S. (2019) New bobtail squid(Sepiolidae : Sepiolinae) from the Ryukyu
islands revealed by molecular and morphological analysis. Communications Biology

egg mass lacked a corresponding
adult; by DNA it appeared to be distantly related to a different species
found in Australia and East Timor,
Euprymna pardalota.

For the present study, the researchers scoured the Ryukyan archipelago
for bobtails, searching in shallow waters. They found three different typesof egg masses and two distinct adultbobtails.
By studying the DNA and RNA expression, or transcriptomes, in 42 different individuals across 10 species,
the researchers matched the adults
with their corresponding egg types
and identified one of them as Euprymna parva, which was previously miscategorized as a different genus. One

symbiotic relationship with the Vibrio
fischeri bacteria that populate a pouch-like organ on the squid’s underside.
Bobtails conceal themselves under thesand throughout the day, then emerge
at night to hunt. They use the bacteria,
which glow, to help them camouflage
and achieve more successful predation in the dark.
Moving forward, the researchers hope
to discover more about the rich diversity of cephalopods off the shores of
Okinawa, and to further explore therelationships between different bobtail
species.

A photo of Euprymna brenneri, taken by
Jeff Jolly, a co-author of the study.

13

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATERESEARCH FOCUS
Hiroshima
Synchrotron
Radiation Center“Coherent
control of an
atom bysynchrotron
radiation”
Coherent control is a method to manipulate the populations and pathways in matters by light and is currently one of the most attractive research areas in optical physics andphotochemistry. Lasers have been
considered as unique light source enabling one to perform coherent control. However, in recent studies pub-Graduate School of
Biomedical and
Health Sciences“Inhibiting
mitochondrial
protein TSPO for
antidepressanteffect”
Antidepressant effect of the
TSPO antagonist modulating
inflammatory response in themouse brain
Recent studies suggested that chronic stress is a predisposing factor for
depression and activates microglial
cells in the brain with inflammatory
response. Translocator protein 18 kDa(TSPO) is a mitochondrial protein expressed on microglia in the brain thathas been proposed to be a useful biomarker for inflammation. A group of
Dr. Aizawa in Hiroshima University inlished in Nature Communications andPhysical Review Letters, the researchgroup that Prof. Masahiro Katoh(Hiroshima Univ.) directs has demonstrated an unremarked capability ofsynchrotron radiation on the coherent
control. They employed devices called
undulators, which was capable of producing synchrotron light pulses with
tailored waveform. They shone He
atoms with those pulses and demonstrated that the populations of the individual excited states of He atoms canbe controlled. Moreover, they also
demonstrated that the shape and orientation of the electron cloud surrounding the atomic nuclei can be controlled. There is no technical restriction
on the application of this method atshorter wavelengths to which lasers
could hardly reach soon. This unexploited capability of synchrotron radiation will advance the frontier of coherent-control technology.

Original articles:
1. Y. Hikosaka, T. Kaneyasu, M. Fujimoto, H.
Iwayama, M. Katoh, “Coherent control in theextreme ultraviolet and attosecond regime bysynchrotron radiation”, Nature Communications 10, 4988 (2019)
Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-01912978-w
2. T. Kaneyasu, Y. Hikosaka, M. Fujimoto, H.
Iwayama, and M. Katoh, “Controlling the orbital alignment in atoms using cross-circularly
polarized extreme ultraviolet wave packets”,
Physical Review Letters (2019)
Link: https://doi.org/10.1103/
PhysRevLett.123.233401

collaboration with Kyushu University bility to chronic stress could pave theand ONO Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. hy- way toward therapeutic interventions
pothesized that a TSPO antagonist, for relapse prophylaxis in depression.
ONO-2952, would inhibit the neuroinflammation induced by microglial hyChronic social defeat stressperactivation and associated depressive-like behaviors. An in vitro analysis
showed that ONO-2952 suppressed
the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species in cultured microglia stimulated by lipopolysaccharide. In micesubmitted to chronic stress, microglia
predominantly expressed TSPO in
limbic areas implicated in depressivelike behaviors, including the amygdala,ventral hippocampus and nucleus accumbens, in which an increase in the
production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in vivo were associated. Treating Original article:
animals with ONO-2952 during chronic Nozaki, K., Ito, H., Ohgidani, M., Yamawaki,social defeat stress ameliorated im- Y., Sahin, E. H., Kitajima, T., Katsumata, S.,
Yamawaki, S., Kato, T., Aizawa, H. (2020).
pairments in social avoidance and Antidepressant effect of the translocator proanxiety-like behaviors and suppressed tein antagonist ONO-2952 on mouse behavunder chronic social defeat stress. Neupro-inflammatory cytokine production, iorsropharmacology, 162, 107835.
suggesting that ONO-2952 exerted ananti-stress effect in this animal model Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.neuropharm.2019.107835
of depression. Thus, targeting TSPO
as a candidate for the development of
14
antidepressants that reduce susceptiHIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATERESEARCH FOCUS
Graduate
School of Science

Successful
Development of“SingleMolecule
Electret”

Report on a unique material exhibiting single-molecule electric
polarisation switching that canoperate above room temperatureContinualprogresshas
beenachieved in information technology
through unrelenting miniaturisation of
the single memory bit in integrated
ferromagnetic, ferroelectric, optical,
and related circuits. However, as miniaturisation is approaching its theoretical limit, new memory materials arebeing sought as replacements.
Here, we report a unique material exhibiting single-molecule electric polarisation switching that can operate
above room temperature, we call asingle-molecule electret (SME), which
exhibits all the characteristics of ferroelectricity but without long-range dipole ordering. The phenomenon occurs in a Preyssler-type polyoxometalate (POM) cluster which has the(a) Crystal structure and (b) potential-energy dispersion of dipole
moment for Preyssler-type polyoxometalate cluster. Dependence ofpolarisation on (c) electric field and (c) temperature of the cluster.
internal space storing one terbium ion.
The terbium ion moves randomly between the two sites in the space athigh temperature, and it localises ateither site without a structural phasetransition as the temperature is decreased. From the temperature- andfrequency-dependent dielectric properties, the wide frequency range of dielectric dispersions can be attributed toterbium-ion movement in the molecule. This compound exhibits ferroelectric-like behaviour but without longrange dipole ordering, as can be seenfrom the hysteretic electric-field dependence of polarisation (P–E) andtemperature-dependent polarisation (P–T). These behaviours originate froma single POM molecule, as confirmedby the above electric measurements

As many researchers are familiar with, "QS WOW NEWS"issued by QS, a University Evaluation Institution in the United Kingdom, contains timely topics and world-class research breakthroughs.
Between the first issue in 2011 and the latest issue of No.35
in 2019, ten articles concerning HU have been published.
As far as the number of times that HU has been featured inthis newsletter, it is the highest among the universities inJapan.

for samples of POM molecules dispersed in a polymer.
Our findings suggest that SMEs canpotentially be applied to ultrahighdensity memory and other molecularlevel electronic devices operating
above room temperature.
Original articles
Kato, C., Machida, R., Maruyama, R.,
Tsunashima, R., Ren, X.-M., Kurmoo,M., Inoue, K., Nishihara, S. (2018).
Giant Hysteretic Single-MoleculeElectric Polarisation Switching above
Room Temperature. Angewandte
Chemie International Edition, 57(41),13429–13432.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/
anie.201806803

Hiroshima University:
Most frequently-featured university
in Japan in the articles of

QS WOWNEWS

HU is keen to continue disseminating interesting news to theworld through the media like QS WOW NEWS.
HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATE

1415

SCHOOLS AND GRADUATE SCHOOLSSCHOOLS (UNDERGRADUATE)GRADUATE SCHOOLSFor undergraduate level, Hiroshima University consistsof 12 schools which provide undergraduate courses including majors in the natural sciences, humanities, thesocial sciences, and many others.

Graduate level studies at Hiroshima University consist of
11 graduate schools below. In addition, three uniqueprogram offered as Interdisciplinary Graduate Educational Program.

School of Integrated Arts and Sciences
School of Letters
School of Education
School of Law
School of Economics
School of Science
School of Medicine
School of Dentistry
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
School of Engineering
School of Applied Biological Science
School of Informatics and Data Science

Graduate School of Integrated Arts and Sciences
Graduate School of Letters
Graduate School of Education
Graduate School of Social Sciences
Graduate School of Science
Graduate School of Advanced Sciences of Matter
Graduate School of Engineering
Graduate School for International Development andCooperation
Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life
Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences

ADVANCED COURSE——————-Opening in April 2020———————
Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering

Special Course of Special Needs Education

Hiroshima University Law School

INTERDISCIPLINARY GRADUATE EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
Phoenix Leader Education Program (Hiroshima Initiative) for Renaissance from Radiation Disaster
TAOYAKA PROGRAM for creating a flexible, enduring, peaceful society
The Frontier Development Program for Genome Editing

HIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATECAMPUS LOCATIONHIROSHIMA UNIVERSITY UPDATEFIND MORE ABOUT HU
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Latest News, Events and Research
as well as links to each university
section are available from thiswebpage.
https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en

UPDATES FROM OUR LABORATORY
This webpage is the source for visitors
worldwide to stay updated about what
happens in the lab at HU.
https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en/
laboratory-updates

SCIENCE COMMUNICATIONHU PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

Meet Ms. Rachel Webber
Our Sci-Com Fellow! (Jan 2020)
The Office of Academic Researchand Industry-Government Collaboration at Hiroshima University
hires professional science writers
through the Science Communication
Fellowship.

Check out HU's video featuring the
University's leading researches aswell as everyday campus scenes.
Visit the following webpage to watch
this video.
YouTubehttps://youtu.be/OzZ4YBex8Ps

Fellows represent the interface between the campus research community and the nonacademic world. They publish science news in English on the Research Updates website and social
media. Other works include Q&A interviews with researchers, photo essays, and short videos.
Contact information:
pr-research@office.hiroshima-u.ac.jp

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