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October 22, 2009

CiRA enhances research on endoderm-derived cells such as pancreatic cells and hepatocytes

CiRA has decided to strengthen a system to advance research to develop in-vitro differentiation induction technology from iPS cells into endodermal cells as well as preclinical research using those cells.


Differentiation induction from iPS cells into endodermal tissue cells such as pancreatic cells and hepatocytes and mesodermally-derived renal cells is said to be difficult compared to other tissue cells. However, a large number of patients suffer from diabetes, chronic renal failure and hepatic diseases in the world. There is the high demand for development of new drugs and therapies against these diseases.


As part of our efforts to meet the demand, CiRA has decided to enhance research on endodermal tissue with Associate Professor Kenji Osafune at its center. Assoc. Prof. Osafune belongs to the Clinical Applications Department of CiRA. His research group focuses on the in-vitro regeneration of kidney from human iPS cells for transplantation and development of new therapeutic drugs against renal diseases. In addition to the research of kidney, his lab has widened the research scope to endodermally-derived cells to establish differentiation induction technology for application of cell transplantion and other effective therapies.


A position of assistant professor is currently available at Osafune's lab. For more information about the application guideline for the position, please visit the URL below.


Application Guide line: http://www.cira.kyoto-u.ac.jp/e/employment.html

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