The human ear, along with the human eye, is an important sensory organ working as an interface between humans and information in the outside world. Interestingly, the auditory system shows highly mechanical behavior from the earhole to the inner ear, such as the vibration of the tympanic membrane, the motion of the ossicles in the middle ear, the active stretching motion of the outer hair cells in the cochlea and the conformational changes of the motor protein “prestin.”

Research interests of the laboratory encompass many aspects of “hearing.” To elucidate the mechanics of hearing and to contribute to the clinical treatment of hearing disorders, our efforts are focused on the development of computer simulation models, biomicromachines and diagnostic devices, as well as on molecular-level analyses by atomic force microscopy (AFM), molecular biology, bioengineering and genetic engineering.

Information

The Biomechanical Engineering Laboratory welcomes graduate students not only from Kanazawa University but also from other universities and different fields of study. The laboratory is always open for visits. If you are interested in our laboratory, please contact us.

As for admissions, please refer to the website of the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Japan.

What's New

03.29.2024: Our research about middle ear diseases in toddlers has been accepted for publication in Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol Jpn. This study is conducted in collaboration with ENT Dept., Kanazawa University, Japan.
03.22.2024: Graduation ceremony was held at Kanazawa University. One graduate student, three undergraduate students and one postdoctoral researcher are moving on to new paths. We look forward to your future success!
03.22.2024: Nakagawa (M2) has been awarded the Dean's Award from the Graduate School of Natural Science & Technology, Kanazawa University, and the Outstanding Student Award from the Hokuriku Branch, the Acoustical Society of Japan!
01.26.2024: Our research about the diagnosis of ossicular chain abnormality using wideband frequency impedance (WFI) has been accepted for publication in Acta Oto-Laryngologica. This study is conducted in collaboration with ENT Dept., Kanazawa University, Japan.
12.16.2023: Tobe (M1) made an oral presentation about an auditory model in the 34th JSME Conference on Frontiers in Bioengineering, Ube, Yamaguchi, Japan.
11.15.2023: Nakagawa (M2) and Niioka (M1) respectively made oral and poster presentations in the 12 the Asian-Pacific Conference on Biomechanics (AP-Biomech 2023), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
11.13.2023: We visited a collaborative researcher Dr. Kanka in Mechatronics Eng. Dept., Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna, Ching Mai, Thai.
11.04.2023: Dr. Murakoshi delivered a panel presentation on the social implementation of new diagnostic and treatment technologies at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Japan Otological Society
10.02.2023: We welcome Dr. Zhou to our lab!
09.19.2023: Our collaborative researcher, Dr. Shinji Hamanishi (Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Engineering, Tohoku Gakuin University), visited our laboratory. We discussed about experimental techniques with regard to conductive hearing loss．
09.01.2023: Nakagawa (M2) and Niioka (M1) made poster presentations in the 6th Japan-Swiss Workshop on Biomechanics, Otaru, Japan.
06.04.2023: Nakagawa (M2) and Niioka (M1) made poster presentations in the 35th Bioengineering Conference of the JSME, Sendai, Japan.
04.06.2023: We are happy to welcome new lab members, Tobe (M1), Kishii (B4), Kitano (B4) and Fukui (B4)!
03.22.2023: Graduation ceremony was held at Kanazawa University. Two graduate and three undergraduate student graduated. Congratulations!!
03.03.2023: Dr. Murakoshi made a pitch presentation at Medtech Academy Pitch Day 2023.
03.01.2023: Dr. Murakoshi received the JSME Medal for Outstanding Paper 2022.
02.27.2023: Dr. Murakoshi gave a lecture on diagnosis of conductive hearing loss at Sensor & IoT Consortium (Online), February 27, 2023.
12.17.2022: Toya (PD) and Kokubo (M2) made oral presentations about a diagnostic technique with a new probe for conductive hearing loss in the 33rd JSME Conference on Frontiers in Bioengineering, Kobe, Japan.
11.14.2022: A new project on hearing in infants and toddlers in progress!!
10.28.2022: Congratulations!! All the lab members have decided on their future careers. We went on autumn grape picking. At this time, Muscat Bailey A was in season.
10.24.2022: Our collaborative researcher, Dr. Shinji Hamanishi (Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Engineering, Tohoku Gakuin University), visited our laboratory. We had discussed theoretical analyses of the conductive hearing loss mechanism and so on.．
10.07.2022: We made an oral presentation about a diagnostic method with a new probe tone for conductive hearing loss in the 67th Congress of Japan Audiological Society, Yamagata.
07.21.2022: We made an oral presentation about chronological changes in dynamic behavior of the hearing system in the 17th Annual Meeting of Japan Society for Pediatric ORL, Toyama
06.26.2022: Toya (PD), Mageshi (M2) and Nakagawa (M1) made poster presentations in the 34th Bioengineering Conference of the JSME, Fukuoka, Japan.
05.06.2022: Our research about the motor protein prestin has received the 2021 JBSE Paper of the Year Award!.
04.08.2022: We are happy to welcome Nakagawa (M1), Kanamori (B4), Semachi (B4), Niioka (B4) and Tamai (Assistant Technical Staff). A wonderful start to the new academic year!
03.28.2022: Dr. Murakoshi gave a lecture on diagnosis of conductive hearing loss at the 4th Medtech Matching, AMED・LINK-J (online).
03.25.2022: Our research about pendrin, which is expressed in the inner ear and related to hereditary hearing loss, has been accepted for publication in Auris Nasus Larynx．
03.22.2022: What a proud day! Four students have graduated from the BME lab. Sending warm congratulations today and wishing for all your tomorrows!
01.06.2022: Our research on prestin are now introduced in Latest Research News of Kanazawa University official website.
01.04.2022: A Happy New Year! We welcome Dr. Toya to our lab!
12.16.2021: Our paper about the inner ear motor prestin published from the Journal of Biomechanical Science and Engineering (JBSE) has been selected as Papers of the Month, Kanazawa University, Japan.
12.08.2021: We made an oral presentation in The 11th Asian-Pacific Conference on Biomechanics (APBiomech 2021), online from Kyoto, Japan.
06.18.2021: Koike (M2) made an oral presentation in the 60th Annual Conference of the JSMBE, online from Kyoto, Japan.
05.28.2021: Our research about the motor protein prestin, which is expressed in sensory cells in the inner ear, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Biomechanical Science and Engineering (JBSE).
04.12.2021: A new academic year has just been started. We welcome three fourth-year undergraduate students!
03.22.2021: AY2020 was a tough year. Today, two undergraduates successfully graduated! Happy graduation!!
06.15.2020: We welcome Kokubo (M1), Kaga (B4) and Mageshi (B4) and would like to start a new academic year!
04.22.2020: A paper by Kanaka (D3) about longitudinal changes in the dynamic behavior of the neonatal hearing system has been published in International Journal of Pediatric Otolaryngology.
01.30.2020: Kanka (D3) and Murakoshi made poster presentations in the 43rd MidWinter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO), San Jose, CA, USA.
12.21.2019: We made an oral presentation in the 32nd Bioengineering Conference of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME), Kanazawa, Japan.
07.19.2019: Kanka (D3) made an oral presentation in the 30th JSME Conference on Frontiers in Bioengineering, Kirishima, Japan.
06.28.2019: We made an oral presentation in the 2019 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference (SB3C), Seven Springs, PA, USA.
04.08.2019: We welcome two fourth-year undergraduate students! For details, see here.
04.01.2019: Website has been started.