Stem cell properties and gene expression analysis for the treatment of disease

For some diseases for which effective preventative and treatment methods have not yet been developed, it is important to analyze the nature and gene expression of special cells called stem cells, towards the development of preventative and treatment methods. Among these diseases, our laboratory focuses on cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease, as we perform the following research.

1. Improvement of anticancer drug resistance of cancer cells: as anticancer drugs do not work well on cancer stem cells, we are conducting research to analyze the genes that lead to the susceptibility of cancer stem cells to various types of anticancer drugs, and anticancer drug resistance.
2. Improvements for Alzheimer’s Disease: if nerve cells in the brain can be regenerated, we can expect this to lead to improvements in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. We are conducting research to analyze the effects of pharmaceutical products, food ingredients, and environmental pollutants on the differentiation of neural stem cells into nerve cells, and the genes involved in these effects.