In April 2022, Department of Molecular Systems BioAnalysis, Division of Medicinal Frontier Sciences (abbreviated name: Keisoku) was renamed from Department of Molecular & Cellular BioAnalysis, Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences (abbreviated name: Seizai). The Seizai lab is a relatively new laboratory in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Kyoto University, newly established in April 1997, but it traces its origins back to the Department of Pharmaceutical Physical Chemistry, which was established in April 1963. Professor Tetsuro Handa, the first professor of the Seizai lab, was a graduate of the Department of Pharmaceutical Physical Chemistry/Pharmaceutical Physics, and he also served as a professor of the Department of Pharmaceutical Physics in 1999. Based on physical chemistry and interface chemistry, he conducted research on biomembranes and plasma protein-lipid complexes, and taught undergraduate and graduate courses related to physical chemistry. Professor Handa retired in March 2010, and Professor Ishihama was appointed as the second professor from the Institute for Advanced Biosciences at Keio University in October of the same year. He launched proteomics research based on separation science and mass spectrometry, and also continued his research on bio-interface chemistry with Associate Professor Nakano, who had been with the Seizai lab since his time at the Handa lab. The goal of the laboratory was to analyze biological components at the cellular and molecular level. In May 2011, Dr. Masaki Wakabayashi from the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center joined the laboratory as a research assistant professor (assistant professor from October 2011), and started proteomics research based on mass spectrometry. In March 2012, Associate Professor Nakano moved to the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Toyama as a professor, and in January 2013, Associate Professor Sugiyama was appointed. In March 2009, Assistant Professor Wakabayashi moved to the National Cardiovascular Center as Director of the Proteome Analysis Laboratory, Omics Analysis Center for Drug Discovery, and in April of the same year, Dr. Hsin-Yi Chang became Assistant Professor (until March 2022, now at Taipei Medical University) and Dr. Akiyasu C. Yoshizawa became a Project Assistant Professor (until March 2022, now at Toyama International University). In December of the same year, Dr. Koshi Imami was appointed as a “Tokunin” assistant professor, followed by a “Tokunin” junior associate professor and in April 2022, he moved to RIKEN. In May 2019, Dr. Kosuke Ogata was appointed as a project assistant professor, and later promoted to assistant professor in April 2022. In 2020, Dr. Ishihama was also appointed as Professor in the Department of Proteomics and Drug Discovery, a collaborative laboratory with the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition, and Assistant Professor Eisuke Kanao was appointed in August of the same year. Currently, the four-member staff aims to develop new proteomics technologies and apply them to cell biology, drug discovery, and clinical research.

(2022.4.1 Responsibility: Ishihama)