KU-UW Alliance Project International Joint Symposium
Seeing and Studying Humans through New Technology
The KU-UW Alliance Project, an academic exchange initiative with the University of Washington for the 2025 academic year, will be held from January 28 to January 30, 2026.
On the first day, January 28, an international joint symposium will take place at the Kusunoki Campus. From the second day onward, invited researchers from UW will also participate in the retreat “Wakate Dojo” as special guests.
Event Overview
Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Venue: Shinryoku Memorial Hall A & B
Registration: Please refer to the email sent to each laboratory.
Deadline: Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Capacity: Approximately 200 participants
| PROGRAM | ||
| 8:45 | Registration | |
|---|---|---|
| 9:30 | Welcome Address Takamichi Murakami, Dean of the Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe University Opening Remarks John D. Scott, Chair of Department of Pharmacology, University of Washington Program Overview Masanori Miyanishi, Program Chair, Kobe University | |
| Session 1 | Unraveling Cellular Complexity: Illuminating Cells by Single Cell Analysis | |
| 9:45 | Defining Deep Biology with High Dimensional Platform Technologies. "Spatial protein localization and detection at the single cell level"
Robert Balderas, BD Biosciences | |
| 10:35 | Toward Visualizing the Cellular Heterogeneity of Bone Marrow Masanori Miyanishi, Kobe University | |
| 10:50 | TBD Claudia Moreno, University of Wasington | |
| 11:10 | Novel Biochemical Methods to Investigate Mitochondria, Metabolism and Signaling Yasemin Sankak, University of Washington | |
| 11:30 | Q&A Session | |
| 11:50 | Lunch Break | |
| Session 2 | Visualizing Life: Advances in Microscopy | |
| 13:00 | Introducing light-field 4D microscopy technology that realizes one volume per one snap Yasuhiko Sato, ZEISS | |
| 13:20 | Dissecting inflammatory dynamics and their regulation through intravital imaging Junichi Kikuta, Kobe University | |
| 13:35 | Unraveling Mechanisms Underlying Neurodevelopmental Disorders using Cortical Organoids Smita Yadav, Univerisity of Washington | |
| 13:55 | Approaches for investigating neural circuits that govern motivated behavior Marta Soden, University of Washington | |
| 14:15 | Q&A Sesssion | |
| 14:35 | Coffee Break | |
| Session 3 | Decoding the Human Blueprint: Omics Approaches | |
| 15:05 | Unparalleled single cell spatial discovery Yuji Sato, 10X Genomics | |
| 15:25 | Spatial Mapping of Small Cell Lung Carcinoma: Intratumoral Diversity and Discovery of a New Macrophage Subset Masafumi Horie, Kobe University | |
| 15:40 | Reconstruction of human post-gastrulation development in vitro Nobuhiko Hamazaki, University of Washington | |
| 16:00 | TBD David Schechner, University of Washington | |
| 16:20 | Q&A Session | |
| Session 4 | Designing the Future: Innovations in Cell Engineering | |
| 16:50 | Engineering Immune Cells for Neuroprotection: Lessons from Multiple Sclerosis and Neuromyelitis Optica Norio Chihara, Kobe University | |
| 17:05 | TBD Sam A. Golden, University of Washington | |
| 17:25 | Accelerating Fluorescent Sensor Engineering for Neuroscience with Machine Learning and High-Throughput Platforms Andre Berndit, University of Washington | |
| 17:45 | Q&A Session | |
| 18:05 | Closing Remarks Takashi Aoi, director of CMX, Kobe University | |