Ken Shirasu,Group Director of RIKEN Plant Science Center, Yokohama, Japan.His group’s ultimate goal is to fully describe functions of genes, proteins and small molecular compounds that are essential for immunity in plants. As the first step, he focus on regulatory mechanism of immunity by studying dynamics of resistance signaling complexes and protein modifications that control defense responses. In addition, he plan to identify novel genes involved in plant immunity by isolating defense mutants in model plants. He also collaborate with the Metabolomics Research Group to isolate small molecule compounds involved in disease resistance.