Researcher Background
Primary Academic Title
Professor, Pathology & Immunology
Education
- -: MD, Osaka University, Japan PhD Osaka University, Japan
- -: PhD, Medical Science & Immunology: Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Osaka, Japan (2002)
- -: Postdoctoral fellowship (Dan Littman Lab): Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY
Research & Selected Publications
Research Interest
Our laboratory has a long-standing interest in genetic and epigenetic regulation of the development and functions of lymphocytes. We are studying gene regulatory network in T cells and B cells that drives requisite clonal expansion for protection against pathogen infection and cancers, support their durable long-term immunity, and protects proliferating lymphocytes and their progenitors from cancerous transformation. Specifically, we focused our research on the characterization of hierarchical dynamics of T and B cell subpopulations that support long-lasting immune responses and roles of gene expression programs initiated by the transcription factor c-MYC that drives both lymphocyte clonal expansion required for normal immune responses and tumorigenesis. In our recent studies, we have identified subpopulations of exhausted CD4 and CD8 T cells in chronic viral infection models and also the presence of a c-MYC-induced tumor suppression pathway that protects developing B cells from transformation.
Research Publications