Research Theme

 
The research foci of our laboratory are...
 
1. To identify genetic factors involved in our health

 
In clinical practice, we faces people showing different clinical characteres. For example, a group of people have a susceptibility to a specific disease, although others do not. Some patients show good response to some specific drugs, while other patients do not respond to same drug well. Moreover, some patients will suffer side effects of a drug even though the drug is safe for most people. Some parts of these phenomena are attributed to genes you have. We try to identify these genetic factors involved in our health and to understand how these genes affect.

 
2. To develp DNA-based diagnosis for tailor-made medicine
 
Based of findings from the study above, we try to develp DNA-based diagnosis to detect people who are potentially susceptible to some specific diseases, who will not respond to a certain drug well, or who will be suffer side effects of a certain drug.
 
3. To reveal drug-tolerance mechanisms of anticancer drugs
 
We also investigate the molecular mechanisms in which cancer cells aquire drug-tolerance, by using cell culture and molecular biology techniques.
 
4. To investigate mechanisms involved in the progression of chronic liver diseases
 
Alcohol-induced liver disease (ALD) and Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are major chronic liver diseases our life style causes. We try to reveal the molecular mechanisms of the progression and development of these diseases, from the aspect of gut-liver axis. In special, we investigate (1) how gut microbiota influence the diseases, (2) how host regulates gut microbiota, and (3) how food and alcohol affect host and microbiota community.