RIKEN Center for Brain Science Laboratory for Protein Conformation Diseases
Team Director: Motomasa Tanaka (Ph.D.)
Research Summary

We are investigating the molecular basis of neurodegenerative disorders and psychiatric diseases using both in vivo and in vitro systems via a variety of techniques including neurobiology, structural biology, genetics and proteomics. In conjunction, we are seeking to uncover the structural basis of yeast prion strains and transmission barriers, and to identify novel functional prions or protein aggregates that play physiological roles in cells.
Main Research Fields
- Biological Sciences
Related Research Fields
- Chemistry
- Complex Systems
- Biological Sciences
- Biology
- Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmacy
- Biology at molecular to cellular levels, and related fields
- Biology at cellular to organismal levels, and related fields
- Neuroscience and related fields
Keywords
- Neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disease
- Protein aggregation
- Amyloid
- mRNA translation
Selected Publications
- 1.Endo R., Chen Y.K., Burke J., Takashima N., Suryawanshi N., Hui K.K., Miyazaki T., and Tanaka M.:
"Dysregulation of ribosome-associated quality control elicits cognitive disorders via overaccumulation of TTC3."
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 120, e2211522120 (2023). - 2.Nakagawa Y., Shen C-h,, Komi Y., Sugiyama S., Kurinomaru T., Tomabechi Y., Krayukhina E., Okamoto K., Yokoyama T., Shirouzu M., Uchiyama S., Inaba M., Niwa T., Sako Y., Taguchi H., and Tanaka M.:
"Amyloid conformation-dependent disaggregation in a reconstituted yeast prion system."
Nat. Chem. Biol., 18, 321-331 (2022). (highlighted by News & Views) - 3.Shida T., Kamatari Y.O., Yoda T., Yamaguchi Y., Feig M., Ohhashi Y., Sugita Y., Kuwata K., and Tanaka M.:
"Short disordered protein segment regulates cross-species transmission of a yeast prion."
Nat. Chem. Biol., 16, 756-765 (2020) (cover article). - 4.Sugiyama S., and Tanaka M.:
"Distinct segregation patterns of yeast cell-peripheral proteins uncovered by a method for protein segregatome analysis."
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 116, 8909-8918 (2019). - 5.Hui K.K., Takashima N., Watanabe A., Chater T.E., Matsukawa H., Nekooki-Machida Y., Nilsson P., Endo R., Goda Y., Saido T.C., Yoshikawa T., and Tanaka., M.:
"GABARAPs dysfunction by autophagy deficiency in adolescent brain impairs GABAA receptor trafficking and social behavior."
Sci. Adv., 5(4), eaau8237 (2019). - 6.Endo R., Takashima N., Nekooki-Machida Y., Komi Y., Hui K.K., Takao M., Akatsu H., Murayama S., Sawa A., and Tanaka M.:
"TDP-43 and DISC1 Co-Aggregation Disrupts Dendritic Local Translation and Mental Function in FTLD."
Biol. Psychiatry, 84, 509-521 (2018). - 7.Chen C.W., and Tanaka M.:
"Genome-Wide Translation Profiling by Ribosome-Bound tRNA Capture."
Cell Rep., 23, 608-621 (2018). - 8.Ohhashi Y., Yamaguchi Y., Kurahashi H., Kamatari Y.O., Sugiyama S., Uluca B., Piechatzek T., Komi Y., Shida T., Müller H., Hanashima S., Heise H., Kuwata K, and Tanaka M.:
"Molecular basis for diversification of yeast prion strain conformation"
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 115, 2389-2394 (2018). - 9.Tanaka M., Ishizuka K., Nekooki-Machida Y., Endo R., Takashima N., Sasaki H., Komi Y., Gathercole A., Huston E., Ishii K., Hui K.K., Kurosawa M., Kim S.H., Nukina N.,Takimoto E., Houslay M.D., and Sawa A.:
"Aggregation of scaffolding protein DISC1 dysregulates phosphodiesterase 4 in Huntington's disease."
J. Clin. Invest., 127, 1438-1450 (2017). - 10.Suzuki G., Weissman J.S., and Tanaka M.:
"[KIL-d] protein element confers antiviral activity via catastrophic viral mutagenesis."
Mol. Cell, 60, 651-660 (2015).
Recent Research Results
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Motomasa Tanaka
- Team Director
Core members
- Yusuke Komi
- Research Scientist
- Ryo Endo
- Research Scientist
- Kai-Wan Kelvin Hui
- Research Scientist
- Marek Konrad Krzyzanowski
- Research Scientist
- Yi-Kai Chen
- Visiting Researcher
- Yoshiko Nakagawa
- Junior Research Associate
- Chih-Hao Shen
- International Program Associate
- Noriko Takashima
- Technical Staff I
- John William Burke
- Technical Staff II
Contact Information
5F, CBS Central building RIKEN Center for Brain Science
2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
Email: motomasa.tanaka@riken.jp