服部一輝博士の医学研セミナー / Institutional seminar by Dr. Kazuki Hattori

　東大先端研、太田研究室の服部一輝博士による医学研セミナーを主催しました。太田研究室には、共同研究でお世話になっているのですが、特に服部さんには、うちの研究室の学生さんの実験を直接指導していただくなど、この上なくお世話になっております。この日は、その共同研究内容ではなく（多少は関連していますが）、服部さんのこれまでの研究も含めて総括的にお話ししていただきました。服部さんのポスドク先の仕事、もっと遡って東大一條研での仕事も、直接お話を聞くのは初めてでした。

　油滴などの微小区画に、オルガノイド、スフェロイドを形成すると、やはりスループットは桁違いに高められるな、と感じました。iPS細胞から分化させた組織特異的細胞にも応用可能だと思います。実際、共同研究はそれに近いことをしていますし。あとは、何の表現型をどうやって見るか、をよく考える…それも実際、今やってます。

　セミナー後の懇親会でも、共同研究しているうちの学生さんと一緒に、ピザ食べながら長時間のディスカッションに付き合っていただき、感謝しかございません。おかげさまで、良いアイデアに辿り着きました（のはず。思い付いたときはいつもそう思うのですが）

　今回は、かなり急なオファーだったのですが、快くお受けいただいき、ありがとうございました。今後ともご指導よろしくお願いします。

I hosted an Institutional seminar by Dr. Kazuki Hattori from the Ota Lab, RCAST, the University of Tokyo. We have been collaborating with the Ota Lab. Hattori-san especially helps us a lot by his direct guidance in experiments by a graduate student from our lab. This time though, Hattori-san gave us a talk on more of his own project, not on our collaborative project (although it is somewhat related). The talk was also on the content of his past research as well. This was the first time for me to hear directly from Hattori-san about his work as a postdoctoral fellow and also about his work at the Ichijo's Lab at the University of Tokyo.

I was impressed by his system to form organoids and spheroids in micro-compartments, such as oil droplets, which can increase throughput by an order of magnitude, and I think it can be applied to tissue-specific cells differentiated from iPS cells. In fact, our collaboration is doing something similar to that. Also, we should carefully think about which phenotype to look for and how to look for it...We are actually working on that as well.

At the happy hour after the seminar, he kindly spared his time for a long discussion over pizza with a student from our lab who collaborates with the Ota lab. Thanks to his help, we came up with a good idea (I always think so when I come up with an idea).

Thank you very much for your willingness to accept my offer, even though it was made at very short notice. Also, thank you in advance for your help in our collaboration.