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Director, Prof. Norio Nakatsuji
Assoc. Prof. Hirofumi Suemori
Assoc. Prof. Jun Yamashita
Assoc. Prof. Takashi Tada
The Stem Cell Research Center was founded in April of 2002. Its purpose is to advance basic research
and medical application in the field of the regenerative medicine using stem cells such as human
embryonic stem cells. The research center consists of 5 laboratories.
1) Laboratory of Embryonic Stem Cell Research (Assoc. Prof. Hirofumi Suemori, Assist. Prof.
Tomoyuki Sumi)
2) Laboratory of Stem Cell Differentiation (Assoc. Prof. Jun K. Yamashita)
3) Laboratory of Stem Cell Engineering (Assoc. Prof. Takashi Tada)
4) Laboratory of Cell Processing (Visiting Prof. Tsuneo A Takahashi, Visiting Assoc. Prof. Miho
Kusuda Furue)
5) Laboratory of Reprogramming Research (Visiting Prof. Ryuzo Torii)
One of the most important missions of the stem cell research center is establishment and distribution
of human embryonic stem cell lines. We have obtained the approval and national grants to produce
human ES cell lines in April 2002. So far, we have established and characterized three human ES cell
lines (KhES-1, KhES-2, KhES-3). We have obligation to distribute ES cells to other institutes in Japan
with approved research plans, and we have started the domestic distribution in March 2004. Until now,
we have distributed to more than 30 laboratories. Such distributed human ES cells will be used for many
aspects of the biomedical research.
Assoc. Prof. Hirofumi Suemori
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 three ES cell lines from three blastocysts recovered from frozen embryos donated
by consent donors. The cell lines expressed marker molecules typical for undifferentiated human ES cells, and also
exhibited differentiation potency into three embryonic germ layer assessed by teratoma formation. They had normal
karyotype, two females and one male, after more than 100 passages. The cell lines, named KhES-1, KhES-2 and KhES-3,
are distributed to researchers who have obtained governmental permission to use human ES cell lines. We are performing
researches on molecular mechanisms of self-renewal of human ES cells.
Assoc. 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
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 innovational technology to produce personalized pluripotential stem cells from adult
somatic cells by the nuclear reprogramming.
Laboratory of Cell Processing
Visiting Prof. Tsuneo A Takahashi, Visiting Assoc. Prof. Miho Kusuda Furue
The new Laboratory of Cell Processing was established in the fall of 2005 to develop basic technologies
to produce and supply clinical grade human embryonic stem cells (hES cells). This cell processing
center specializes in Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in processing and preservation of the clinical
grade hES cells for medical products. The standards and standard operation procedures (SOPs) to produce
clinical grade hES cells will be prepared in collaboration with the Laboratory of the Embryonic
Stem Cell Research. The Laboratory plans to start supplying clinical grade hES cells to researchers as a
clinical hES cell resource bank in several years.
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Human Embryonic Stem Cell Project
