Skip to main content
Advertisement

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About BiO
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contact
    • Contact BiO
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Biology Open
  • COB
    • About The Company of Biologists
    • Development
    • Journal of Cell Science
    • Journal of Experimental Biology
    • Disease Models & Mechanisms
    • Biology Open

supporting biologistsinspiring biology

Biology Open

Advanced search

RSS   Twitter   Facebook   YouTube

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Accepted manuscripts
    • Issue in progress
    • Latest complete issue
    • Issue archive
    • Archive by article type
    • Interviews
    • Sign up for alerts
  • About us
    • About BiO
    • Editors and Board
    • Editor biographies
    • Grants and funding
    • Journal Meetings
    • Workshops
    • The Company of Biologists
    • Journal news
  • For authors
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Aims and scope
    • Presubmission enquiries
    • Article types
    • Manuscript preparation
    • Cover suggestions
    • Editorial process
    • Promoting your paper
    • Open Access
  • Journal info
    • Journal policies
    • Rights and permissions
    • Media policies
    • Reviewer guide
    • Sign up for alerts
  • Contact
    • Contact BiO
    • Advertising
    • Feedback
First Person
First person – Daisuke Takao
Biology Open 2019 8: bio047670 doi: 10.1242/bio.047670 Published 18 September 2019
  • Article
  • Figures & tables
  • Info & metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

ABSTRACT

First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Daisuke Takao is first author on ‘Feedback loops in the Plk4–STIL–HsSAS6 network coordinate site selection for procentriole formation’, published in BiO. Daisuke conducted the research described in this article while an Assistant Professor in Daiju Kitagawa's lab at Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan. He is now at the Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, investigating cilia and centrosomes.

Embedded Image

Daisuke Takao

What is your scientific background and the general focus of your lab?

I often face difficulties explaining my background in a word. I started my research career by working on biophysics of molecular motors. Most of my PhD period at the University of Tokyo was dedicated to development and application of optical microscopy combined with quantitative analyses and mathematical modeling to visualize molecular dynamics inside cilia. So I would say my background is biophysics. I also studied mouse development at the National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan. Then, in my post-doc period at the University of Michigan, I stepped into the cell biology field. Despite such an interdisciplinary background, my research has been consistently focused on cilia and centrosomes. It is exciting to think how molecular dynamics in such a small space organize complex cell systems.

How would you explain the main findings of your paper to non-scientific family and friends?

We successfully tracked the behavior of endogenous proteins functioning at centrosomes in live human cells, which was not as easy as it looked. A large body of work has presented an overview of such molecular behavior around centrosomes – such as changes in local protein levels along the cell cycle – in ‘fixed’ cells to provide snapshots of cellular processes. Our study, on the other hand, filled the gaps between those snapshots using live-cell imaging. Besides quantitative image analyses, we simulated the behavior of the molecules. Together, we demonstrated that our model including a complex network of molecular interactions can explain molecular mechanisms underlying biogenesis of centrosomal architecture. We established a way to directly visualize the dynamic behavior of endogenous proteins at centrosomes in live human cells with theoretical implications. I'm convinced this approach will be a new standard in the field.

“We established a way to directly visualize the dynamic behavior of endogenous proteins…”

What are the potential implications of these results for your field of research?

One of the most important messages from this study is in the approach. Once again I emphasize that we established a method to quantitatively track endogenous proteins at centrosomes in live human cells. This method includes techniques like CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, spinning disc confocal microscopy and quantitative image analyses with original algorithms. As I mentioned, this study filled the gaps and connected the pieces of previous ‘snapshot’ information. So, someone might say such results are just within the scope of previous results and not surprising. I would say, ‘OK, hold on. You can say so only after actually looking at these results’. Even though there will not always be unexpected findings in the gaps of snapshots, such work is a significant part of the stream of science. I believe this work has advanced the field by proving we actually can look at what's going on at centrosomes in live cells.

What, in your opinion, are some of the greatest achievements in your field and how has this influenced your research?

Super-resolution microscopy has definitely changed cell biology, and of course the cilia and centrosome fields are no exception. The core architecture of cilia and centrosomes are as small as 200 nm in diameter, making them the best targets to test the limit of optical microscopy. Actually, a number of studies using super-resolution microscopy have gained our insight into the nanoscopic structures of cilia and centrosomes. Such achievements have been driving the field and of course I'm one to visualize the nanoscopic world with passion. I applied STED super-resolution microscopy in my recent work to visualize spatial patterning of molecules at centrosomes, which also motivated this work. Hopefully our achievements will encourage other scientists in the field as well.

Figure1
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint

Schematic of dynamic assembly of core centrosomal architecture.

What changes do you think could improve the professional lives of early-career scientists?

Among a bunch of issues to discuss, I would pick the issue of excessive competition. Needless to say, we are forced to participate in the ‘impact factor race’. Is this really good for science? There could be alternative frameworks for assessing early-career scientists, instead of just short-sighted publication records. I know I'm talking about idealism, but I think many scientists are aware of this issue. I hope we can somehow find a better way to do good science with more creativity and less stress.

What's next for you?

Imaging is my life. I will keep imaging. Having more than 15 years as a microscopist, I want to keep looking at what exactly happens inside cells. It's so exciting to imagine how the behavior of molecules organizes the cellular system. Imaging approaches will surely help. I'll be focusing on cilia and centrosomes but also trying to expand my scope. Thinking about organelle communication will be an exciting option. How are molecular functions in cilia and centrosomes connected to those in other organelles? I do want to link those pieces in the context of the entire cell system.

Footnotes

  • Daisuke Takao's contact details: Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan E-mail: dtakao{at}mol.f.u-tokyo.ac.jp

  • © 2019. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.

Reference

  1. ↵
    1. Takao, D.,
    2. Watanabe, K.,
    3. Kuroki, K. and
    4. Kitagawa, D.
    (2019). Feedback loops in the Plk4–STIL–HsSAS6 network coordinate site selection for procentriole formation. Biology Open 8, bio047175. doi:10.1242/bio.047175
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
Previous ArticleNext Article
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

This Issue

RSSRSS

 Download PDF

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Biology Open.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
First person – Daisuke Takao
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Biology Open
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Biology Open web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
First Person
First person – Daisuke Takao
Biology Open 2019 8: bio047670 doi: 10.1242/bio.047670 Published 18 September 2019
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
First Person
First person – Daisuke Takao
Biology Open 2019 8: bio047670 doi: 10.1242/bio.047670 Published 18 September 2019

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Alerts

Please log in to add an alert for this article.

Sign in to email alerts with your email address

Article Navigation

  • Top
  • Article
    • ABSTRACT
    • Footnotes
    • Reference
  • Figures & tables
  • Info & metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Related articles

Cited by...

More in this TOC section

  • First person – Kun Guo
  • First person – Kalyanasundaram Parthasarathy
  • First person – Bishal Basak
Show more FIRST PERSON

Similar articles

Other journals from The Company of Biologists

Development

Journal of Cell Science

Journal of Experimental Biology

Disease Models & Mechanisms

Advertisement

Biology Open and COVID-19

We are aware that the COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on researchers worldwide. The Editors of all The Company of Biologists’ journals have been considering ways in which we can alleviate concerns that members of our community may have around publishing activities during this time. Read about the actions we are taking at this time.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the Editorial Office if you have any questions or concerns.


Future Leader Review - Cardiac myosin super relaxation

A new Future Leader Review by Manuel Schmid and Christopher Toepfer discusses the rapidly-expanding field of myosin super relaxation in the context of cardiovascular disease. Read the full Review and their accompanying interview.

Find out more about our Future Leader Reviews – they are an exclusive opportunity for early-career researchers who want to establish themselves in their field.


An interview with Roberta Azzarelli

In an interview, first author Roberta Azzarelli discusses her 3D model of glioblastoma and shares her thoughts on how to improve the professional lives of early-career researchers: formal mentorship programmes, a clearly structured career path and taking part in initiatives such as the Node Network.


News from our sister journals

Development continues to run a successful new webinar series, Development presents…, while Journal of Cell Science has recently welcomed Esperanza Agullo-Pascual as FocalPlane’s new Community Manager. Journal of Experimental Biology’s new special issue highlights the role of comparative biology in tackling climate change and Liz Patton, the new Editor-in-Chief of Disease Models & Mechanisms, sets out her visions and priorities.

Articles

  • Accepted manuscripts
  • Issue in progress
  • Latest complete issue
  • Issue archive
  • Archive by article type
  • Interviews
  • Sign up for alerts

About us

  • About BiO
  • Editors and Board
  • Editor biographies
  • Grants and funding
  • Journal Meetings
  • Workshops
  • The Company of Biologists

For Authors

  • Submit a manuscript
  • Aims and scope
  • Presubmission enquiries
  • Article types
  • Manuscript preparation
  • Cover suggestions
  • Editorial process
  • Promoting your paper
  • Open Access

Journal Info

  • Journal policies
  • Rights and permissions
  • Media policies
  • Reviewer guide
  • Sign up for alerts

Contact

  • Contact BiO
  • Advertising
  • Feedback

Twitter   YouTube   LinkedIn

© 2021   The Company of Biologists Ltd   Registered Charity 277992