Looking down the Emerald Lake from the Burgess Shale fossil site at Yoho National Park
Ph.D. National Institute for Basic Biology (2001)
Associate Professor (Department of Biology Miami University)
F1000 Faculty (Developmental Evolution)
C.V. (ver 2017_8)
office: 252 PSN
phone: 513-529-3126
email: tomoyay@miamioh.edu
lab website: sites.miamioh.edu/tomoyasulab
twitter: twitter.com/yoshitomoyasu
Google Scholar
ORCID
F1000
ResearchGate
Teaching
I love both teaching and research. It is challenging to pursue these two themes at the same time, but I believe that the excitement of real research and discovery is the most powerful resource that a teacher can use to engage students in science class and to foster habits of life-long learning. My long-term goal as a college professor is to seamlessly integrate my research into the teaching setting, which allows students to learn science from real life examples.
Course taught:
Molecular Biology (BIO 444/544)
Molecular Biology Laboratory (BIO 464/564)
Biological Concepts: Structure, Function, Cellular and Molecular Biology (BIO 116)
Seminar in Biology (BIO 491)
Graduate Seminar (BIO 710)
Research
Evolutionary Developmental Biology (evo-devo)
Molecular and Cellular Biology
My research interests revolve around understanding the molecular basis underlying morphological evolution. We use insect wings as a model, and investigate the emergence and divergence of this evolutionary critical structure, that has made insects one of the most successful group of animals on this planet.
We also study the systemic aspect of RNA interference (RNAi) in insects. RNAi, in which dsRNA suppresses the translation of homologous mRNA, is a highly conserved cellular defense mechanism. In some organisms, the RNAi response can be transmitted systemically from cell to cell, a phenomenon termed ‘systemic RNAi’. Understanding systemic RNAi will be crucial for the application of RNAi to many other insects, which will open the possibility of functional analysis in various insects and also will provide us with the route to establish RNAi-based pest management strategies.
Other random facts
Love hiking, trail running, skiing
Love manga
Hopeless coffee addict
Used to live in Manhattan Kansas and now living in Oxford Ohio working at Miami University (I know, very confusing…)
Here is my name in Kanji: 友安慶典