Tsubasa Sato

Tsubasa Sato conducts research spanning microbial ecology, space environments, urban ecosystems, computational infrastructure, and media art, grounded in closed ecosystem engineering. His work is consistently directed toward a single question: how can living systems be maintained, reconfigured, and even extended under extreme conditions? His research began with the construction of closed artificial ecosystems, initiated during high school. By tracking microbial community dynamics over extended periods within sealed systems containing simulated planetary soils, and integrating 16S rRNA microbiome analysis with Bayesian compositional statistical modeling (BALSAMICO), he demonstrated the conditions under which functional microbial ecosystems can be established in closed environments. These findings, reported in a peer-reviewed publication, provide foundational knowledge for the design of life-support systems for extraterrestrial habitation. He has since expanded his research toward understanding the effects of space environments—particularly low gravity—on living systems. He is engaged in the design and development of cell culture devices that simulate low-gravity conditions, building an experimental platform to evaluate cellular and gut microbiota responses under microgravity. Through this work, he aims to implement an experimental framework for understanding Human-Microbiota Integration, which is critical for maintaining human health during space habitation. In the domain of urban environments, he is quantifying changes in microbial communities accompanying ecological interventions (goat introduction and removal) in semi-isolated residential spaces through shotgun metagenomic analysis. He is also conducting research focused on student dormitories as social ecosystems, using survey data and statistical analysis to quantitatively evaluate how different residential environments (male, female, and mixed dormitories) influence cultural formation and behavioral patterns. These efforts represent an attempt to treat the dynamics of biological ecosystems and human societies within a unified framework. The insights gained from studying how spatial design and community composition shape social behavior in closed residential environments may also prove valuable for designing future space habitation societies, where small groups must sustain cohesive communities within confined and isolated settings. He has also built "seq2pipe," an original microbiome analysis platform. Unlike conventional fixed analysis pipelines, seq2pipe is an "interpretation-driven, closed-loop autonomous analysis system" that dynamically determines each subsequent step by iteratively evaluating analysis results. It consists of a pure Python-based statistical analysis module (DataInspector), an EvalMediator that evaluates analysis results across multiple axes, and a DecisionEngine that deterministically controls workflows through literature-based decision trees, with LLMs used only in a limited capacity for code generation and hypothesis proposal. This design ensures reproducibility and fault tolerance of the decision-making process while achieving autonomous microbiome analysis in which analysis paths adapt according to the data. Furthermore, as an engineering approach toward space habitation, he is leading the development of recyclable soluble concrete for lunar construction. Through collaborative research with industry partners, he is advancing material design and prototype construction, and is currently evaluating mechanical properties under simulated lunar surface conditions. This research demonstrates the creation of novel space technologies through the interplay of biological knowledge and engineering design. In addition, he engages in media art as an expression of scientific concepts. In the Technetope project, he implemented swarm behavior algorithms and environmental responsiveness in groups of autonomous mobile agents, visualizing interactions between humans and artificial ecosystems. This represents an attempt to experientially reconstruct concepts from microbial ecology and complexity science. The central philosophy unifying all of these endeavors is "Nature to Tech, Tech to Nature"—a cyclical approach that extracts and implements the invisible dynamics of nature as technology (Nature to Tech), while simultaneously feeding back through technologically reconstructed systems to deepen our understanding of nature (Tech to Nature). Through this reciprocal movement, Sato's research aims to approach the essence of living systems while contributing to the construction of sustainable human societies in the extreme environment of space.