About Us
About PAGS and PAGS Support
For life sciences, massive and highly accurate DNA sequence analysis has become more important than ever before. To cope with the situation it is necessary to develop a large-scale and state-of-the-art system both in terms of genome analysis and bioinformatics and to share the system with the research community. “Platform for Advanced Genome Science” (PAGS) was established for this purpose as a project of Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) on Innovative Areas ― Platforms for Advanced Technologies and Research Resources supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Beginning in April 2016, a period of six years is scheduled.
The PAGS members are experts in genomics and bioinformatics, who develop state-of-the-art technologies using the latest devices and provide the technologies to a wide range of projects that are selected from KAKENHI projects to solve their difficult issues. We call this activity “PAGS Support”. The costs of this activity are essentially covered by PAGS budget, therefore, the PAGS Support is not a funding program nor an analysis service but a kind of collaboration between KAKENHI projects and the PAGS members. The PAGS members try to develop technologies to solve difficult issues presented by KAKENHI projects, which leads to the emergence of more difficult issues, which leads to further improvement or development of technologies by the PAGS members. Such a virtuous circle should lead to the advancement of genome science and the peak creation of life science. These are the mission of PAGS Support.
Technologies provides by PAGS Support
As shown in Fig.1, the PAGS Support is consisted of three major activities; (1) Management and ELSI, (2) Large-scale DNA sequencing, and (3) Advanced bioinformatic analysis. The latter two activities have the following categories of technologies and analysis, which are provided to the selected KAKENHI projects as warp weft.
(2) Large-scale DNA sequencing activities
A) de novo genome analysis
B) Variation analysis
C) Epigenetic analysis
D) RNA analysis
E) Metagenome, environmental genome and hologenome analysis
F) Ultra-high sensitivity analysis
(3) Advanced bioinformatics activities
A) Pipelines for basic analysis
B) Comprehensive annotation
C) Multi-omics analysis
D) Knowledge database for AI
E) More advanced bioinformatics
Organization of PAGS
PAGS is consisted of 48 researchers; 1 Principal Investigator, 21 Co-Investigators and 25 Research Collaborators, from 25 institutions (University Departments and Research Institutes) throughout the country. To promote the support activities, a network of institutions is formed with the National Institute of Genetics as the core institution and 7 institutions to which most of the PAGS members belong as the collaborating institutions (Fig.2). These institutions will share in the PAGS Support and its advancement through supporting the activities of the PAGS members.
Members of PAGS
（:Principal Investigator, :Co-Investigator, —:Research Collaborator）
(1) Management and ELSI Group
| Yuji Kohara | Advanced Genomics Center, National Institute of Genetics | |
| — | Ken Kurokawa | Department of Informatics, National Institute of Genetics |
| — | Sumio Sugano | Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University |
| — | Toshihisa Takagi | School of Science, The University of Tokyo |
| ·ELSI Group | ||
| Kazuto Kato | Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University | |
| — | Ryuichi Ida | Shiga University |
| — | Zentaro Yamagata | Graduate School Department of Interdisciplinary Research, University of Yamanashi |
| — | Tohru Masui | Keio University School of Medicine |
| — | Kaori Muto | The Institute of Medical Science, The University Of Tokyo |
| — | Satoshi Kodama | Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University |
| — | Koichi Setoyama | Kyoto Prefectural University Of Medicine |
| — | Minori Kokado | Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University |
| Minae Kawashima | National Bioscience Database Center, Japan Science and Technology Agency | |
(2) Large-Scale DNA Sequencing Group
| ·NIG Site | ||
| Atsushi Toyoda | Department of Genomics and Evolutionary Biology, National Institute of Genetics | |
| — | Asao Fujiyama | Advanced Genomics Center, National Institute of Genetics |
| — | Ituro Inoue | Department of Genomics and Evolutionary Biology, National Institute of Genetics |
| ·UT Kashiwa Site | ||
| Yutaka Suzuki | Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo | |
| — | Sumio Sugano | Medical Research Institute, Tokyo Medical and Dental University |
| ·UT Hospital Site | ||
| Jun Mitsui | The University of Tokyo Hospital | |
| — | Shoji Tsuji | The University of Tokyo Hospital |
| ·Kyushu U Site | ||
| Tetsuya Hayashi | Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University | |
| — | Yasuhiro Gotoh | Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University |
| — | Keiji Nakamura | Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University |
| ·Sapporo Med U Site | ||
| Takashi Tokino | Sapporo Medical University | |
| — | Hiromu Suzuki | Sapporo Medical University |
| — | Hiroshi Nakase | Sapporo Medical University |
| — | Katsuhiko Nosho | Sapporo Medical University |
| — | Yasushi Sasaki | Sapporo Medical University |
| — | Masashi Idogawa | Sapporo Medical University |
| — | Masahiro Kai | Sapporo Medical University |
| — | Shoichiro Tange | Sapporo Medical University |
(3) Advanced Bioinformatics Group
| ·NIG Site | ||
| Ken Kurokawa | Department of Informatics, National Institute of Genetics | |
| — | Hiroshi Mori | Department of Informatics, National Institute of Genetics |
| Yasukazu Nakamura | Department of Informatics, National Institute of Genetics | |
| — | Osamu Ogasawara | Bioinformation and DDBJ Center, National Institute of Genetics |
| — | Yasuhiro Tanizawa | Department of Informatics, National Institute of Genetics |
| Hideki Noguchi | Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research, Research Organization of Information and Systems | |
| — | Shinji Kondo | Joint Support-Center for Data Science Research, Research Organization of Information and Systems |
| ·UT Site | ||
| Toshihisa Takagi | School of Science, The University of Tokyo | |
| Wataru Iwasaki | School of Science, The University of Tokyo | |
| Shinichi Morishita | Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo | |
| Kiyoshi Asai | Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo | |
| Masahiro Kasahara | Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo | |
| — | Hisataka Kiryu | Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo |
| ·Tokyo Tech Site | ||
| Takehiko Itoh | School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology | |
| — | Rei Kajitani | School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology |
| Takuji Yamada | School of Life Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology | |
| ·Kyushu U Site | ||
| Yoshitoshi Ogura | Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University | |
| Satoru Kuhara | Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University | |
| — | Kousuke Tashiro | Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University |
| ·Others | ||
| Hiroki Takahashi | Medical Mycology Research Center, Chiba University | |
| Jun Sese | Artificial Intelligence Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology | |
| — | Martin Frith | Artificial Intelligence Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology |
| Yasubumi Sakakibara | Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University | |
| — | Michiaki Hamada | Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University |
| — | Hideki Hirakawa | Kazusa DNA Research Institute |