Research Experience (itemized)

 “Clarification of Pathogenesis and Drug Discovery toward Hepatic Diseases” 

Identification of novel micro-signals (targets for drug discovery) in liver diseases and high throughput screening of their regulatory compounds for future drug discovery utilizing chemical biology techniques. 

1.   Screening of Novel Drugs: Drug discovery and development of new drugs (non- nucleotide analogues) against hepatitis B virus (HBV) utilizing the next generation life science technologies under financial support from AMED.

2.   Development of New Diagnosis Method: Development of diagnosis, prevention, and therapy against early stage of liver fibrosis targeting novel liver fibrogenesis marker, TGF- LAP-DP under collaboration with medical universities and companies.

3.   Molecular Mechanism of Novel Drugs: Studies on nuclear TG2/crosslinking and inactivation of Sp1/selective apoptosis of MYCN positive liver cancer stem cells by phase III drug candidate, acyclic retinoid (Peretinoin) and their control by foods.

Perspectives

 Continue collaboration with medical universities and companies within Japan and worldwide for basic and applied researches on establishment of novel diagnosis, prevention, and therapy against hepatitis aiming to start translational researches. 

1.   Screening of Novel Drugs against HBV: Under financial support from AMED, identify the target protein and downstream molecular mechanisms of the candidate compounds, analyze target-compound interaction using NMR/Spring 8, and based on obtained information perform in silico screening with Kei computer, getting the lead compounds. After ADMET and animal experiments, find a partner companies, and start Phase I clinical trials.

2.   Development of New Diagnosis for Liver Fibrogenesis Targeting TGF- LAP-DP: Develop the diagnosis kit by collaborating with Jikei Med Univ and the diagnosis company S, aim to establish a PET imaging of tissue fibrogenesis with labeled anti- LAP-DP antibodies, and using these techniques challenge to develop anti-fibrotic drugs under collaboration with the S Pharm.

3.   Molecular Mechanism of Novel Drugs Killing Selectively Liver Cancer Stem Cells: Under collaboration with K Pharm, perform global analyses including every OMICs and elucidate whole figure of the molecular mechanism, start single cell analyses based on the result of the big data analyses aiming to personalized medicine, and continue collaboration to find novel food component under collaborations.