RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences Laboratory for Cellular Function Conversion Technology
Team Director: Harukazu Suzuki (Ph.D.)
Research Summary

Gene expression is regulated by complicated association between transcriptional regulatory network and epigenome landscape such as DNA methylation. We aim at understanding of life phenomena and its disorder, development of novel technologies, and cellular function conversion toward therapy of disease. For this purpose, we proceed various research, such as DNA demethylation-promoting transcription factors and their role, mechanism of disease onset induced by abnormality of DNA methylation regulatory factors, epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process and its related disease, and mechanism of germ cell and epithelial cell differentiation and oncogenic conversion. In addition, we are developing an international collaboration with the University of Cape Town for the treatment of tuberculosis by targeting host genes.
Main Research Fields
- Biological Sciences
Related Research Fields
- Biology & Biochemistry
- Molecular Biology & Genetics
Keywords
- Transcriptome
- Transcriptional regulatory network
- Epigenome
- Bio-technology
- Genome Biology
Selected Publications
- 1.
Yoshida M, Kwon AT, Qin XY, Nishimura H, Maeda S, Miyamoto Y, Yoshida Y, Hoshino Y, Suzuki H.:
"Transcriptome analysis of long non-coding RNAs in Mycobacterium avium complex-infected macrophages"
Front Immunol, 15: 1374437 (2024). - 2.
Xu Y, Su T, Mishra H, Ando R, Furutani Y, Lu J, Cai M, Suzuki H, Yu W, Qin XY.:
"Corn Oligopeptide Alleviates Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease by Regulating the Sirtuin Signaling Pathway"
J Agric Food Chem, 72(12): 6360-6371 (2024). - 3.
Qin XY, Shirakami Y, Honda M, Yeh SH, Numata K, Lai YY, Li CL, Wei F, Xu Y, Imai K, Takai K, Chuma M, Komatsu N, Furutani Y, Gailhouste L, Aikata H, Chayama K, Enomoto M, Tateishi R, Kawaguchi K, Yamashita T, Kaneko S, Nagaoka K, Tanaka M, Sasaki Y, Tanaka Y, Baba H, Miura K, Ochi S, Masaki T, Kojima S, Matsuura T, Shimizu M, Chen PJ, Moriwaki H, Suzuki H.:
"Serum MYCN as a predictive biomarker of prognosis and therapeutic response in the prevention of hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence"
Int J Cancer, doi: 10.1002/ijc.34893 (2024). - 4.
Qin XY, Furutani Y, Yonezawa K, Shimizu N, Kato-Murayama M, Shirouzu M, Xu Y, Yamano Y, Wada A, Gailhouste L, Shrestha R, Takahashi M, Keillor JW, Su T, Yu W, Fujii S, Kagechika H, Dohmae N, Shirakami Y, Shimizu M, Masaki T, Matsuura T, Suzuki H, Kojima S.:
"Targeting transglutaminase 2 mediated exostosin glycosyltransferase 1 signaling in liver cancer stem cells with acyclic retinoid"
Cell Death Dis, 14(6): 358 (2023). - 5.
Tanaka Y, Furuhata E, Maeda S, Kishima M, Suzuki H, Suzuki T.:
"A dataset of definitive endoderm and hepatocyte differentiations from human induced pluripotent stem cells"
Sci Data, 10(1): 93 (2023). - 6.
Yip CW, Hon CC, Yasuzawa K, Sivaraman DM, Ramilowski JA, Shibayama Y, Agrawal S, Prabhu AV, Parr C, Severin J, Lan YJ, Dostie J, Petri A, Nishiyori-Sueki H, Tagami M, Itoh M, Lopez-Redondo F, Kouno T, Chang JC, Luginbuhl J, Kato M, Murata M, Yip WH, Shu X, Abugessaisa I, Hasegawa A, Suzuki H, Kauppinen S, Yagi K, Okazaki Y, Kasukawa T, de Hoon M, Carninci P, Shin JW.:
"Antisense-oligonucleotide-mediated perturbation of long non-coding RNA reveals functional features in stem cells and across cell types."
Cell Rep, 41(13): 111893 (2022). - 7.
Suzuki T, Furuhata E, Maeda S, Kishima M, Miyajima Y, Tanaka Y, Lim J, Nishimura H, Nakanishi Y, Shojima A, Suzuki H.:
"GATA6 is predicted to regulate DNA methylation in an in vitro model of human hepatocyte differentiation"
Commun Biol, 5(1): 414 (2022). - 8.
Miyajima Y, Noguchi S, Tanaka Y, Li JR, Nishimura H, Kishima M, Lim J, Furuhata E, Suzuki T, Kasukawa T, Suzuki H.:
"Prediction of transcription factors associated with DNA demethylation during human cellular development"
Chromosome Res, 30(1): 109-121 (2022). - 9.
Yoshino T, Suzuki T, Nagamatsu G, Yabukami H, Ikegaya M, Kishima M, Kita H, Imamura T, Nakashima K, Nishinakamura R, Tachibana M, Inoue M, Shima Y, Morohashi KI, Hayashi K.:
"Generation of ovarian follicles from mouse pluripotent stem cells"
Science, 373(6552): eabe0237 (2021). - 10.
Suzuki T, Shimizu Y, Furuhata E, Maeda S, Kishima M, Nishimura H, Enomoto S, Hayashizaki Y, Suzuki H.:
"RUNX1 regulates site specificity of DNA demethylation by recruitment of DNA demethylation machineries in hematopoietic cells"
Blood Adv, 1(20): 1699-1711 (2017).
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Harukazu Suzuki
- Team Director
Core members
- XianYang Qin
- Senior Research Scientist
- Kazutaka Murata
- Research Scientist
- Yuta Sakamoto
- Junior Research Associate
- Yali Xu
- International Program Associate
- Yuri Nakanishi
- Technical Staff I
- Erina Furuhata
- Technical Staff I
- Shiori Maeda
- Technical Staff I
- Keiko Kuwabara
- Administrative Part-time Worker I
- Hricha Mishra
- Research Part-time Worker II
- Hajime Nishimura
- Temporary Staffing
Contact Information
West Research Building,
1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama,
Kanagawa 230-0045, Japan
Email: harukazu.suzuki@riken.jp