Noboru Mizushima（Professor, Graduate School and Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo）

　Based on the Strategic Objective Measuring ‘resilience of life’ — Discovery and exploration of unknown biological response mechanisms, the goal of this research area is to elucidate the power of life through a needs-oriented, cross-disciplinary approach that utilizes various measurement parameters. We also aim to develop innovative measurement and analysis techniques to visualize and characterize the power of life, and to elucidate it utilizing the techniques developed.

　In this research area, the concept of the power of life encompasses the fundamental properties of life, including the ability to change dynamically while maintaining a certain identity (dynamism), the ability to withstand harsh environments (robustness), and the ability to constrain fluctuations caused by external stimuli and internal factors (homeostasis). However, the power of life is not limited to these features, and researchers participating in this research area will pursue their own concept of the power of life and seek to elucidate and understand it. The term the power of life includes both the power that life produces and the power that produces life.

　To elucidate the power of life, we will develop innovative measurement and analysis techniques to meet the demands of life sciences by organizing cross-disciplinary teams among researchers. In addition, we aim to reveal the unexplained elements of the power of life by overlaying various parameters, such as measurements over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales of life, and measurements across these scales.

　We hope that this research area will create a new view of life through the development of innovative measurement and analysis techniques that meet the demands of life sciences and the elucidation of previously unknown or neglected elements of the power of life.