A new research project titled “Functions of non-coding DNA regions in genome”, with Dr. Takehiko Kobayashi of Division of Cytogenetics as a project leader, was adopted by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) on Innovative Areas from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. Eukaryotic genomes contain a large DNA region that does not encode protein, so called non-coding DNA regions. These regions are expected to have important roles in gene expression and chromosome maintenance. However, most of the functions of the non-coding DNA regions remain unknown. The project tries to identify “the last undiscovered region of genome”, non-coding DNA regions. Division of Cytogenetics, Kobayashi Laboratory