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Toward a thorough understanding of the molecular machinery of life and its application

Toward a thorough understanding of the molecular machinery of life and its application Here in Yuki Yamaguchi's laboratory at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, we are uncovering the mystery of life by taking cross-disciplinary approaches including biochemistry, genetics, genomics, and proteomics. We are also striving to transform our new findings into practical applications for the benefit of humankind. The following are our major research areas:

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1. Control mechanisms of genome expression
We seek to fully understand the process of epigenetic regulation, transcription initiation, elongation, and termination, and RNA processing, which are all necessary to make functional RNAs from the genome. Whereas cells in our body have the same set of genes, they exert diverse functions. This is made possible by the elaborate cellular machinery that controls spatiotemporal expression of the genome. We have identified and characterized a set of protein factors involved in this process. We are also trying to understand how diverse transcriptomes are generated from the genome.

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2. Chemical biology using small molecule compounds
Small molecule compounds are extremely useful tools. Understanding how a certain compound affects complex biological systems helps us to elucidate unknown biological networks in which its target protein is involved. Moreover, these findings can also be applied to drug development. Chemical biology is an interdisciplinary subject investigating these issues, and we are conducting research aiming at new drug development using unique interaction analysis technologies (proteomics) in combination with genetic screens (genomics).

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