The Obara Lab is a team of creative, open-minded individuals working together, trying to address the big questions in cell biology and biophysics. What is life? How does metabolism work? What causes aging? We believe living systems are dynamic, responsive, and inherently complex—and this makes them perfect for quantitative, live cell imaging and high-resolution ultrastructural analysis. Our strategy is developing and integrating the next generation of imaging technologies with classical techniques in biochemistry, statistical physics, and structural biology. We are proud to perform most of our work collaboratively with amazing colleagues and are committed to sharing our tools freely with the wider scientific community.

Philosophy

• We believe that the truth is inherently worth pursuing, even when inconvenient.
• We believe that the scientific method is the most reliable way to pursue truth—though our experiments or interpretation can be flawed, the process is inherently self-correcting (eventually).
• We believe that diverse experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives make us stronger, so we strive to bring new perspectives to the fundamental cellular systems we study.
• We believe our field is made up of colleagues, not competitors—so we are committed to sharing our data, reagents, and ideas as freely as possible.
• We believe that thoughtful, open discussion and careful experiments can help us solve many of humanity’s great health challenges—aging, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases—and far beyond.