Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology (ICOB) · Academia Sinica
We decode and program morphogenesis
We uncover and rewrite the rules that convert signal inputs into tissue architecture.
A live simulation. Touch or move your cursor over it to perturb it.
Our question
How does multicellular structure emerge?
Decode
How natural systems read signals
We break the "signal → fate" mapping into separable layers and measure each one in stem-cell-derived embryo models.
Read more → 02Reprogram
Rewriting how tissues are patterned
We use synthetic organizer cells and engineered niches to change the signals cells receive (their identity, timing, and spatial arrangement) and to rewrite how cells interpret them.
Read more → 03Explore
Beyond natural development
Using the rules we decode, we explore forms that nature has not made, and design the signals to build them.
Read more →News
All news →-
The Yamada Lab is open! We have started at the Institute of Cellular and Organismic Biology, Academia Sinica, in Taipei. We're recruiting.
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Our paper on synthetic organizer cells, which guide development through spatial and biochemical instructions, is out in Cell.
Selected papers
All publications →-
Article
Synthetic organizer cells guide development via spatial and biochemical instructions
Cell 188, 778–795.e18 (2025) DOI
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Perspective
Pathway to Independence: a forecast for the future of developmental biology
Development 152 (2025) DOI
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Perspective
Harnessing synthetic biology to engineer organoids and tissues
Cell Stem Cell 30, 10–19 (2023) DOI
Build the lab with us.
We are a new lab in Taipei, opened in October 2026. Early members shape what we work on and how we work.