Sake and Science
An annual day of scientific presentations and sake tasting
Our annual Sake & Science event blends the elegance of Japanese tradition with cutting-edge scientific innovation.
At the 2025 symposium, attendees sipped on world-famous Takara sake and learned about new approaches that capture unique insights into cellular function and dysfunction. Distinguished guest speakers shared their groundbreaking research on cellular signatures in heart failure, the spatiotemporal evolution of cancer, novel RNA liquid biopsy technology, and other fascinating topics.
2025 guest speakers
Dr. Patrick Cahan (virtual)
Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Decoding early synovial joint development with single‑cell and spatial transcriptomics
Dr. Gabriela Salinas (virtual)
Head of Core Unit: NGS Integrative Genomics, University of Göttingen
Integration of single-cell multi-omics data from cardiac biopsies in heart failure
Dr. Matt Jones (on-site)
Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University (at the time of event; now Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Tracing the spatiotemporal evolution of cancer
Dr. Farshad Farshidfar (on-site)
Senior Bioinformatics Scientist, Tenaya Therapeutics
Cracking HFpEF: deep cellular signatures of dysfunction and recovery in failing hearts
Speaker interviews
Interview with Matthew Jones, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University (now Assistant Professor, MIT)
Dr. Jones discusses his postdoctoral research at Stanford University, which used new genomic and imaging technologies to address long-standing questions about tumor evolution. He is working to discover stereotypical paths that tumors take to evolve, which could be targeted in a patient’s therapeutic journey. His work relies on mind-blowing technologies that democratize previously inaccessible investigative approaches.
Interview with Daniel Kim, PhD, Assistant Professor, UC Santa Cruz
Dr. Kim shares his experience in using RNA-based liquid biopsies to identify biomarkers of cancer—and even precancer—in the early stages of disease when treatments are most effective. His lab’s reliance on Takara Bio’s molecular biology reagents underscores the importance of high-quality tools in driving cutting-edge transcriptomics research.
Interview with Farshad Farshidfar, MD, PhD, Senior Scientist, Tenaya Therapeutics
Dr. Farshidfar explains his work towards developing treatment modalities for genetic cardiomyopathies and other cardiac diseases. New technologies are enabling the exploration of what was previously impossible—the activity and interactions of different cell types in a functioning heart. When combined with the explosion in patient data, he sees real potential to improve patient outcomes.
Learn more about our new single-cell technologies for high-throughput analysis that will help you explore the whole genome and transcriptome
Shasta Single Cell System introduction
Explore exciting new single-cell NGS technologies to usher in an era of novel biomarker discovery.
High-throughput profiling of copy number variation at single-cell resolution
This technical note describes how researchers can perform single-cell DNA-seq with the Shasta Whole-Genome Amplification Kit.
Full gene-body coverage with Shasta Total RNA-Seq
This technical note describes how researchers can obtain high throughput and sensitivity for full gene-body transcriptome analysis at the single-cell level with the Shasta Total RNA-Seq Kit.
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