Prof. Norio Nakatsuji
Assoc. Prof. Shinichiro Chuma
This laboratory analyzes molecular and cellular mechanisms to control function of stem cells and differentiation of mammalian germ cells by using various mouse strains. Particular attention is paid to the development of germ cells and spermatogenic cells in testes, as well as pluripotent embryonic stem cells.
Assoc. Prof. Hirofumi Suemori
Lect. Eihachiro Kawase
Visiting Prof. Tsuneo A Takahashi
Visiting Assoc. Prof. Miho Kusuda Furue
Human ES cell lines are considered to have great potential of ES cells in medical research and application such as cell transplantation therapy and drug discovery. We established human ES cell lines at a high efficiency and analyzed their characters in detail. We derived 5 ES cell lines, named KhES-1, KhES-2, KhES-3, KhES-4 and KhES-5, and distributed to over 50 research projects in Japan. We are also performing researches on molecular mechanisms of self-renewal and differentiation of human ES cells, and developing techniques for genetic manipulation of hES cells.
We have constructed a Cell Processing Facility (CPF) to develop core technologies to produce and supply clinical grade human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines. This CPF has been made in compliant with the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in processing and preservation of the clinical grade hES cells for medical products.
We are now preparing standard operation procedures (SOPs) to produce clinical grade hES cell lines to establish a clinical grade hES cell bank in the near future, aiming to supply them to researchers in the fields of regenerative medicine.
Prof. Jun K. Yamashita
Main theme of our research: Elucidation of cellular and molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular development and the application to cardiovascular regeneration using in vitro differentiation system of embryonic stem cells (and somatic cells).
Research Projects:
1. Elucidation of cellular and molecular mechanisms of vascular cell differentiation and specification using ES cell in vitro differentiation system.
2. Application of induced vascular cells to vascular regeneration
3. Cardiomyocyte induction from ES cells
4. Cardiovascular differentiation using primates ES cells
5. Cardiovascular differentiation from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells
Assoc. Prof. Takashi Tada
Nuclear reprogramming is a unique phenomenon that specialized somatic cells acquire the property of pluripotential stem cells, which can differentiate to a variety of cell and tissue types. We found that embryonic stem (ES) cells retain the nuclear reprogramming activity by experiments of cell hybridization with adult somatic cells.
We are focusing our attention on
1) Understanding molecular mechanisms and factors underlying the nuclear reprogramming.
2) Developing technology of iPS and ES cells for applying from bench to bed.
Human Embryonic Stem Cell Project
