
Team Leader
Makito Miyazaki
Ph.D.
Laboratory for Bottom-up Cell Biology
LocationYokohama
E-mailmakito.miyazaki[at]riken.jp
Please replace [at] with @.
The cell maintains its life through the assembly and disassembly of various subcellular structures having unique biological functions from molecules. How do the tiny molecules recognize the vast intracellular space and self-organize into micrometer-scale structures at appropriate time and space to regulate cell functions? This is a fundamental but non-trivial question in biology. Our team aims to understand the design principles that govern the self-organization of cell-scale ordered structures and biological functions from molecules. Using the cytoskeleton as a model system, we are exploring biochemical and physical conditions under which cytoskeletal structures and the related biological functions are reconstituted in artificial cells.
Selected Publications
Yamazaki Y, Miyata Y, Morigaki K, Miyazaki M.
Controlling Physical and Biochemical Parameters of Actin Nucleation Using a Patterned Model Lipid Membrane.
Nano Letters
24(6), 1825-1834 (2024)
doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c02742
Sakamoto R, Izri Z, Shimamoto Y, et al.
Geometric trade-off between contractile force and viscous drag determines the actomyosin-based motility of a cell-sized droplet.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
119(30), e2121147119 (2022)
doi: 10.1073/pnas.2121147119
Sakamoto R, Tanabe M, Hiraiwa T, et al.
Tug-of-war between actomyosin-driven antagonistic forces determines the positioning symmetry in cell-sized confinement.
Nature Communications
11(1), 3063 (2020)
doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16677-9
Kubota H, Miyazaki M, Ogawa T, et al.
Processive Nanostepping of Formin mDia1 Loosely Coupled with Actin Polymerization.
Nano Letters
18(10), 6617-6624 (2018)
doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b03277
Kubota H, Miyazaki M, Ogawa T, et al.
Biphasic Effect of Profilin Impacts the Formin mDia1 Force-Sensing Mechanism in Actin Polymerization.
Biophysical Journal
113(2), 461-471 (2017)
doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2017.06.012
Suzuki K, Miyazaki M, Takagi J, et al.
Spatial confinement of active microtubule networks induces large-scale rotational cytoplasmic flow.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
114(11), 2922-2927 (2017)
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1616001114
Miyazaki M, Chiba M, Eguchi H, et al.
Cell-sized spherical confinement induces the spontaneous formation of contractile actomyosin rings in vitro.
Nature Cell Biology
17(4), 480-489 (2015)
doi: 10.1038/ncb3142
Chiba M, Miyazaki M, Ishiwata S.
Quantitative analysis of the lamellarity of giant liposomes prepared by the inverted emulsion method.
Biophysical Journal
107(2), 346-354 (2014)
doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2014.05.039