Research Overview

The immune system not only protects the body from sources of infection and eliminates them, but also deeply influences the onset and pathophysiology of various diseases such as rejection of transplanted organs, lifestyle diseases, and cancer related to aging. Therefore, immunology is an important area of study for all fields of medicine and healthcare.

In our research laboratory, we focus on T cells, which act as the command center of the immune system and play a central role in controlling cancer cells and virus-infected cells, and the thymus, the organ responsible for their production. We are working on the following themes in order to explore the basic principles of immunology and develop immunoregulatory methods based on them to contribute widely to medicine and healthcare:

1. Elucidation of the development and function of thymic stromal cells (thymic epithelial cells)
2. Induction of thymic epithelial cells from iPS cells and reconstruction of thymus function
3. Elucidation of thymus involution mechanisms and development of methods to activate thymus function
4. Investigation of the role of T cell aging in the onset and pathogenesis of agerelated diseases (T cell senescence)
5. Clarification of the actual state and mechanism of human T cell aging and development of control methods