We are pleased to announce that Dr. Naoko Satoh-Takayama, from RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS), Japan will join the Second Conjoint RIKEN-ISM 2026 as a speaker and deliver a presentation entitled “Microbial Metabolites as Drivers of Gastric Mucosal Defense“.

Prof. Naoko Satoh-Takayama, Unit Leader at the RIKEN Ecosystem and Coevolution Laboratory (ECL), Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of Science and Mie University, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Yokohama City University Graduate School, will discuss how innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) serve as rapid-response sentinels at mucosal surfaces, integrating dietary and microbiota-derived signals to calibrate immune homeostasis and prevent excessive inflammation.

Mucosal tissues face a constant immunological challenge: they must remain permeable for nutrient absorption and gas exchange while simultaneously defending against pathogens and tolerating commensal microorganisms and dietary antigens. Among the immune populations tasked with maintaining this balance, ILCs have emerged as critical early regulators, orchestrating downstream immune responses that shape tissue protection and repair.

During her talk, Prof. Satoh-Takayama will present recent advances in understanding how environmental factors such as dietary components and microbiota-derived signals directly shape ILC-mediated immune responses in mucosal tissues. She will address how these signals instruct ILC subset differentiation and function, and how disruption of this dialogue may contribute to the pathogenesis of immune-mediated diseases.

The 2^nd RIKEN-ISM Conjoint Meeting
Tokyo Microbiota 2026
September 24-25, 2026 – The University of Tokyo, Japan
tokyo.microbiota-ism.com