Outline & History

Our Mission

About the LOGO

Symbol mark of the Institute, which designs the metaphase plate of the first meiotic division and symbolizes the remark by Dr. Hitoshi Kihara (1946): “The history of the earth is recorded in the layers of its crust; the history of all organisms is inscribed in the chromosomes.”

History

1949 June 1Established under the jurisdication of the Ministry of Education, Sclence, Sports and Culture. Started with an administrative department and three research departments.
1949 Aug. 10Prof. Kan Oguma was elected the 1st Director.
1953 Jan. 1Three research departments were reorganized as the Departments of Morphological Genetics, CytologicalGeneticsand Physiological Genetics.
1953 Aug. 1Department of Biochemical Genetics was added.
1954 July 1Department of Applied Genetics wes added.
1955 Sept.15Departrnent of Induced Mutation was added.
1955 Oct. 1Prof. Hitoshi Kihara was elected the 2nd Director.
1960 Apr. 30Department of Human Genetcs was added.
1962 Apr. 1Department of Microbial Genetics was added.
1964 Apr. 1Department of Population Genetics was added.
1969 Apr. 1Prof. Daigoro Moriwaki was elected the 3rd Director. Department of Molecular Biology was added.
1974 Apr. 1Plant Section of the Genetic Stock Center was established.
1975 Mar. 1Dr. Yataro Tazima was elected the 4th Director.
1975 Oct. 1Animal Section in the Genetic Stock Center was added.
1976 Oct. 1Microbial Section in the Genetic Stock Center was added.
1983 Oct. 1Dr. Ei Matsunaga was elected the 5th Director.
1984 Apr. 12Reorganized as an inter-university research institute for joint use by universities. The DNA Research Center (DNA Structure and Reoombinant DNA Laboratories) and the Experirnental Farm were established. The Genetic Stock Research Center was expanded into five laboratories: the Genetic Resources Laboratory was added and the Animal Section was divided into the Mammalian and Invertebrate Laboratories.
1985 Apr. 1The DNA Synthesis and DNA Data Analysis Laboratories were added in the DNA Research Center.
1987 Jan. 12The DNA Data Bank of Japan began operations.
1988 Apr. 8The Radio-isotope Center was established. The Gene Library Laboratory was added in the DNA Research Center.
1988 Oct. 1The Graduate University for Advanced Studies was established. The Department of Genetics, School of Life Science of the University began accepting students.
1989 Oct. 1Dr. Jun-ichi Tomizawa was elected the 6th Director.
1993 Apr. 1The Mammalian Development Laboratory was added in the Genetic Stock Research Center.
1994 June 24The Gene Function Research Laboratory was added in the DNA Research Center.
1995 Apr. 1The Center for Information Biology was established. Gene-Product Informatics and Molecular Classification Laboratories were added and DNA Data Analysis and Gene Function Latoratories were transferred from the DNA Research Center.
1996 May 11The DNA Research Center was reorganized as the Structural Biology Center consisting of 5 laboratories(Biological Macromolecules, Molecular Biomechanism, Multicellular Organization, Biomolecular Structure and Gene Network).
1997 Apr. 1The Genetic Stock Research Center was reorganized as theGenetic Strains Research Center consisting of laboratories (Mammalian Genetics, Mammalian Development, Plant Genetics, Microbial Genetics and Invertebrate Genetics), and as the Center for Genetic Resource Information consisting of 2 laboratories (Genetic Informatics and Genetic Resources).
1997 Oct. 1Dr. Yoshiki Hotta was elected the 7th Director.
1998 Apr. 9The Division of Early Embryogenesis was added in the Department of Developmental Genetics. The Division of Brain Function was added in the Department of Integrated Genetics.
2001 Apr. 1The center for Information Biology was reorganized as the Center for Information Biology and DNA Data Bank of Japan. The new center consists of 5 laboratories. The Laboratory of Molecular Classification of the former center was renamed as the laboratory of Research and Development of Biological databases in the new center. The Laboratory of Gene-Expression Analysis was added in the new center.
2002 Apr. 1Two laboratories,Mouse Genomics Resource Laboratory and Model Fish Genomics Resource Labaratory,were added to the Genetic Strains Research Center.
2003 Apr. 1The Comparative Genomics Laboratory was added to the Center for for Genetic Resource Information.
2004 Apr. 1Reorganized as Research Organization of Information and Systems,Inter-University Research Institute Corporation,together with three other national institutes.
2004 Dec. 1Dr. Yuji Kohara was elected the 8th Director.
2005 Apr. 1Intellectual Property Unit was added. Research Promotion Section was added in the Department of Administration.
2006 Apr. 1The Center of Frontier Research was established. The Laboratory for Cell Lineage,Neural Morphogenesis and Cell Architecture was added in the new center.
2011 Oct. 1Advanced Genomics Center was established.
2012 Apr. 1Research centers were reorganized. Intellectual Infrastructure Centers (Genetic Resource Center and DDBJ Center) and Support Centers (IT Unit, Mouse Research Supporting Unit) were established.
2012 Dec. 1Dr. Isao Katsura was elected 9th Director.
2014 Apr. 1Office for Research Development was added.
2015 Apr. 1Unit for Experimental Animal Care was established. Office for Female Researcher Development was added. Renamed as Office for Gender Equality (as of 2017 Apr. 1)
2018 Dec. 1Dr. Fumio Hanaoka was elected the 10th Director.
2019 Jan. 1The existing 5 departments, 3 research centers (Genetic Strains Research Center, Structural Biology Center and Center for Information Biology), Experimental Farm and Radio-isotope Center were abolished. Four research departments (Dept. of Informatics, Dept. of Genomics and Evolutionary Biology, Dept. of Gene Function and Phenomics and Dept. of Chromosome Science) were established. The DDBJ Center, as one of the Intellectual Infrastructure Centers, was renamed as the Bioinformation and DDBJ Center. The Support Center was reorganized. (The Radioisotope Unit was added.)
2023 Feb. 1Phenotype Research Center was established.

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