Innovative Research for Important Problems

Historically cell-lines established from tissue sources have been important model in biomedical research. Those cells can be grown and expanded in plastic dish, and useful for biochemistry and molecular biology experiments. However, those cell-lines are different from cells in native tissue. Human tissues contain different cell types such as extra cellular proteins which form 3-dimensional structure to support cells. Thus it is impossible to reproduce such complex cellular environment in plastic dish. Cell-lines are also maintained for long time in laboratory condition which may change characteristics of the cells. From these reasons, it is very important to analyze native tissue in medical research. In this laboratory, we analyze clinical tissues, cells and body fluid samples using genomics and epigenomics approaches. We also develop assay methods specially designed for limited amount of samples. In combination with ultra-high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis, we uncover how cells are regulated in normal and disease.  We work closely with pathologists in University Hospital, Pathological Diagnostics group and Tsukuba Human Tissue bank Centre. Through this effort, we discover new drug targets and useful biomarkers in cancer.