Fumiaki Yokoyama

Fumiaki Yokoyama

Fumiaki was born and raised in Osaka, Japan.

He completed his bachelor’s thesis in chemical biology, with a focus on developing the fundamentals of an anti-tumor drug using peptide-click chemistry at Osaka Prefectural University, Japan.

For his master’s and Ph.D. theses, he delved into molecular microbiology, aiming to unravel the molecular mechanisms of extracellular vesicle production in cold-adaptive bacteria isolated from the Antarctic Ocean and fish intestines. This research was carried out at the Department of Agriculture and the Institute for Chemical Research at Kyoto University, Japan. His findings revealed that a specific concentration of a certain amino acid-induced extracellular vesicle production and biofilm dispersion through a sensor protein in the bacterium.

As a postdoc in the Department of Biosystems Science and Bioengineering at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, he shifted his focus to microfluidic engineering. Here, he developed a unique bacterial culture system in which only single cells were captured within microchannels, while their daughter cells were removed by fluid flow. Extracellular vesicles secreted by these individual cells were captured and detected on the device surface using a microscope.

During his second postdoc, conducted at the Department of Physics at The University of Tokyo, Japan, he integrated principles of active matter physics into his microbiology research. Currently, he is investigating phenotypic heterogeneity within bacterial communities within microfluidic devices using a microscope, focusing on the effects of heterogeneous microenvironments.

In his ongoing second postdoc project, he is collaborating with the team at LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse, France, where he is working on the development of a newly designed microfluidic device and exploring single-cell responses under pressure.

His scientific goal is to dissect cellular society, particularly with bacteria exhibiting monocellular and multicellular living forms in diverse environments. To achieve this, he is integrating various scientific fields such as molecular microbiology, microfluidic engineering, and active matter physics to understand cellular individuality, communication, and collective behavior towards his ultimate goal.

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Current members

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Alumni