The results of our joint research with Professor Hiroshi Handa, Tokyo Medical University, have been published in iScience (a new journal from Cell Press). This study reveals a new function of cereblon (CRBN), an intracellular target protein of thalidomide, using zebrafish as a model organism. CRBN regulates the proliferation of neural stem cells. Since CRBN […]

The results of our joint research with Professor Takaaki Tamura, Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, have been published in Scientific Reports. This study shows that TLP, a member of the TATA box-binding protein family, regulates the process of apoptosis induction by DNA double-strand breaks, providing new insights into the intracellular mechanisms that determine the

The results of a collaborative study with Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Tokyo Medical University, and Nagoya Institute of Technology have been published in Scientific Reports. This is a detailed analysis of the binding of thalidomide optical isomers to thalidomide target protein Cereblon (CRBN), revealing differences in pharmacological effects of the optical isomers at

The results of our joint research with Keio University and Tokyo Medical University have been published today in Nature Communications. This is the world’s first elucidation of the unique three-dimensional structure of a protein involved in malignant tumor growth and drug resistance.

The paper “CTCF regulates NELF, DSIF and P-TEFb recruitment during transcription” has been accepted for publication in the transcription journal Transcription. The first author of this paper is Clelia Laitem (University of Oxford, Shona Murphy lab), who visited our lab and collaborated with us as a JSPS Research Fellow two years ago, and the co-authors

The paper “Characterization of the human transcription elongation factor Rtf1: evidence for non-overlapping Characterization of the human transcription elongation factor Rtf1: evidence for non-overlapping functions of Rtf1 and the Paf1 complex” was accepted for publication in Molecular Cellular Biology and a preliminary version was posted on the web on July 27, 2012. The first author

The paper “SV40 VP1 major capsid protein in its self-assembled form allows VP1 pentamers to coat various types of artificial beads in vitro regardless of their sizes and shapes” has been published in Biotechnology Reports. The first author of the paper is Masaaki Kawano, a graduate of our lab (currently Assistant Professor at Saitama Medical

The paper “Inhibition of protein SUMOylation by davidiin, an ellagitannin from Davidia involucrata” was published in the Journal of Antibiotics. The first author of the paper is Misao Takemoto (formerly Yoneyama), a former student of our lab who completed the PhD program. This paper has screened a natural product library to identify novel small molecule

The paper “DSIF and NELF interact with Integrator to specify the correct post-transcriptional fate of snRNA genes” has been published in Nature Communications (Nature’s sister journal). The first author of the paper is Junichi Yamamoto, a post-doctoral researcher in our lab. The discovery of the mechanism by which NELF directly interacts with RNA polymerase II,

With support from the KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Transcription Cycle,” we are pleased to invite Professor Cheng-Ming Chiang (UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas) to our university to hold a seminar on Friday, December 6 from 16:30 to 18:00 at B2 Building 226 Lecture Room The seminar was entitled “Epigenetic Control