Laboratory

Super-resolution microscopy

Nikon SIM + STORM. One of our higher-end instruments, part 1.

Leica STELLARIS + LIGHTNING

LIGHTNING strengthens the STELLARIS confocal platform with simultaneous multi-color super-resolution imaging, without sacrificing speed.

Confocal microscopy, Nikon A1R+

A fast, sensitive confocal microscope. In Matsui LAB. this is the instrument for everyday routine observation.

Leica THUNDER model organism

A stereo microscope that uses Computational Clearing to show fine structure clearly. It is useful when we want an overview of zebrafish or other thick samples.

High-content confocal imaging

Yokogawa CV8000. Higher-end instrument, part 2. It is a shared instrument, and knowing I am the one who manages it is a bit heavy.

Plate readers: fluorescence, absorbance and luminescence. The lab currently has three. Nanodrop. Four PCR machines and two real-time PCR machines. Cell-culture room: two hoods, two CO2 incubators, a Nepa21 electroporator, an automatic cell counter (CellDrop).

Single Cellome Unit SU10

Yokogawa’s Single Cellome Unit SU10. A glass nanopipette with a tip tens of nanometres across delivers genes or drugs directly into the nucleus or cytoplasm of a chosen single cell, or samples material from inside it.

Fish breeding system

Six large double-sided four-shelf recirculating systems. We use MEITO Suien tanks.

Research models

Mouse

We use mice to test, in the mammalian brain, mechanisms found in fish and cultured cells.

Zebrafish

This is the fish we use most. In Japan it is still less common, but in Europe it has rapidly become the second most used laboratory animal despite a late start. Easy husbandry and genome editing, many tools, and easy imaging make it exceptionally practical. The photograph is the transparent Casper line.

Medaka

A fish where Japan has particular strength. It is fairly distant from zebrafish, so the two species complement each other: some experiments work in one and not the other. Also the cutest-looking, in our biased view.

Turquoise killifish

Even if this species acquired longevity genes, adults die when the dry season removes the water, so longevity never became common. Longevity was not selected, and the fish is among the shortest-lived vertebrates. Rapid aging makes it powerful for aging and age-related disease. Males are colorful and aggressively intimidating.

Giant danio

We started keeping them for a particular reason, but they are not easy to use experimentally. Picture a large zebrafish. Using a different fish is a good way to remember how unusually good zebrafish are as a laboratory animal.