When Obokata became a unit leader of the Riken Center for Developmental Biology, she changed the color of her laboratory's wall to pink and yellow and decorated the room with Moomin items and stickers.
The technique for producing STAP cells was developed by Haruko Obokata at the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), while she was studying under Charles Vacanti, and then at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan.