The laboratory will take viromics as its foundation, combining various approaches such as metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, stable isotope labeling, chemical spectroscopic analysis, geochemical thermodynamics, and bioinformatics tool development. It will focus on deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems, coastal wetlands, and freshwater lakes as the main research areas, systematically investigating the mechanisms of virus-driven carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles, as well as the ecological evolution and biological research of Mirusvirus and Nucleocytoviricota (Giant Virus). 

Figure 1: Mechanisms of Bacterial/Archaeal/Viral-Driven Carbon and Sulfur Cycling in Hydrothermal Systems

Figure 2: Long-Term Temporal Dynamics of Viral Communities in Freshwater Lakes

Analysis of nearly 1.3 million viral genomes over a 20-year time series, elucidating the dynamic changes and the impacts of various factors such as time, seasonality, and environment.

Figure 3: Evolution and Biological Studies of Mirusvirus and Giant Viruses

Figure 4: Development and Utilization of Metagenomics and Viromics

The focus is on developing algorithms, software, and databases to advance the ecological interpretation of microbiome and virome data. 

Software has been developed for mining metagenomic data to characterize viral features (VIBRANT, vRhyme, PropagAtE, ViWrap) and 

studying microbial metabolism and interactions (METABOLIC). 

Representative publications: Microbiome 2020 8(1):90. Microbiome 2022 10(1):33. Nucleic Acids Res 2022 50(14):e83.