Molecular Pharmacogenomics

Research Project

Development of innovative research on cancer therapeutics, such as genome-based drug discovery, regenerative-medicine, and tailor-made treatments.
Molecular pharmacogenomics study on cancer signaling pathways: The analysis of the role of the Ras/Raf/PKC/MAPK/calcineurin signaling pathways in oncogenesis using fission yeast and a transgenic-/ knockout-mice model systems.
Chemicalgenomics/biology study to understand molecular mechanisms of drug action and to screen for novel immunosuppressive drugs and anti-cancer drugs using fission yeast and a mouse model systems.
Molecular and biomedical studies of human diseases, such as Down’s syndrome and Alzheimer’s.

Introduction

Our first research goal is to understand the intracellular signal transduction pathways that regulate cell growth and their involvement in tumorigenesis, such as the “RAS/RAF/PKC/MAP kinase cascades and calcineurin phosphatase” using the fission yeast and mouse model organisms.
Our laboratory also aims to understand the molecular mechanism of drug action and to develop innovative research tools for currently intractable disorders such as cancers, genetic disorders like Down’s syndrome and Alzheimer’s by genome-based drug discovery for anti-cancer drugs and novel immunosuppressive drugs.
To address these challenging objectives, we employ advanced leading edge molecular pharmacogenomic/chemical genomics/chemical biology technologies using fission yeast, together with genetically engineered mouse models for human diseases.
Given the remarkable conservation of the components of these cancer-related signaling pathways, and disease-related genes, this approach will provide insights into the molecular mechanism of diseases in higher eukaryotes, and will help to contribute to develop innovative molecular-targeted anti-cancer drugs.