Yumi Konagaya 13th Asia Pacific Microscopy Congress 2025

Yumi Konagaya

Yumi Konagaya is a Team Leader in RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR), Japan. She received her Ph.D. from Kyoto University, where she developed a transgenic mouse line expressing a novel FRET-based reporter for AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and found tissue- and cell-type specific activation of AMPK in vivo. As a postdoc in the lab of Tobias Meyer at Stanford University/Weill Cornell Medicine, USA, she has been studying the proliferation-quiescence decision using a live-cell reporter system for E2F and cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) activities. Her live-cell reporter system in conjunction with multiplexed fixed cell approach led to a surprising finding of an intermediate E2F activity state where cells decide whether to proliferate or return to quiescence. Her team currently focuses on elucidating how cell proliferation and differentiation are orchestrated in the intestinal epithelium. In particular, her team aims to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying the cell fate decision of intestinal epithelial stem cells by live imaging of mouse intestinal organoids, multiplexed tissue imaging, and quantitative analyses.