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RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences Drug Discovery Antibody Platform Unit

Unit Leader: Kazuhiko Yamamoto (M.D., Ph.D.)

Research Summary

 Kazuhiko Yamamoto

The use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for cancer therapy has achieved significant success in recent years. Our laboratory is developing antibody drugs for Gliomas, AML, B lymphomas and Hepatitis by collaborations within and outside of RIKEN. We have established a system to preferentially select best functional clones during the initial hybridoma culture, and clarify the activities whether it could be applicable in medical therapies by several model systems, prior to the further examinations at the clinical side. We are now developing technical systems to create entirely human antibodies and artificial mAbs with high biological activities.

Main Research Fields

  • Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmacy

Related Research Fields

  • Biology

Keywords

  • Immunological Memory
  • Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies

Selected Publications

  • 1.Miyauchi.K, Sugimoto-Ishige, Ishige A. Harada, Y. Adachi, Y. Usami, Y. Kaji, T., Inoue, K., Hasegawa, H., Watanabe, T. Hijikata, A., Maemura, T.,Okada-Hatakeyame, M., Ohara, O., Kawaoka, Y., Takahashi, Y. Takemoir, T. Kubo, M.:
    “Protecitve neutralizing influenza antibody response in the subset of T follicular helper cells.”
    Nat. Immunol. 17, 1447-1458 (2016)
  • 2.Kaji, T., Hijikata A., Ishige A., Kitami T., A., Watanabe T., Ohara, O., Shimoda, M., Okada, M., Taniguchi M., and Takemori, T.:
    “CD4 memory T cells develop and acquire functional competence by sequential cognate interactions and stepwise gene regulations.”
    Int. Immunol. 28, 267-282 (2016)
  • 3.Nance, J.P., Belanger, S., Johnston, R.J., Hu J.K., Takemori, T. and Crotty, S.:
    “Bcl6 middle domain repressor function is required for T follicular helper cell differentiation and utilizes the corepressor MTA3.”
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 112, 13324-13329 (2015)
  • 4.Nance, J.P., Belanger, S., Johnston, R.J., Takemori, T. and Crotty, S.:
    “Cutting Edge: T Follicular Helper Cell Differentiation Is Defective in the Absence of Bcl6 BTB Repressor Domain Function.”
    J. Immunol. 194: 5599-5603 (2015)
  • 5.Takemori T.:
    “Generation of memory B cells.”
    pp227-230. In Molecular Biology of B cells. 2nd edition. Edited by Alt, F., Honjo, T., Radbruch A. and Reth, M. Life Science Academic Press/ Elsevier. (2014)
  • 6.Takemori, T., Kaji T, Takahashi T., Shimoda, M., and Rajewsky, K.:
    “Generation of memory B cells inside and outside the germinal center.”
    Eur. J. Immunol. 44:1258-1264 (2014)
  • 7.Kaji, T., Furukawa, K., Ishige, A., Toyokura, I., Nomura, M., Okada, M., Takahashi, Y., Shimoda, M. and Takemori, T.:
    “Both mutated and unmutated memory B cells accumulate mutations and develop a new antibody repertoire optimally adapted to the secondary response.”
    Int. Immunol. 25(12):683-95 (2013)
  • 8.Kometani K, Nakagawa R, Shinnakasu R, Kaji T, Rybouchkin A, Moriyama S, Furukawa K, Koseki H, Takemori T, Kurosaki T.:
    “Repression of the transcription factor Bach2 contributes to predisposition of IgG1 memory B cells toward plasma cell differentiation.”
    Immunity. 13:1074-7613 (2013)
  • 9.Ato, A., Takahashi, Y., Fujii H., Hashimoto, S.-I., Kaji, T., Yamamoto, K., Itamura, S., Horiuchi, Y., Arakawa, Y., Tashiro, M., Takemori, T.:
    “Influenza A whole virion vaccine induces a rapid reduction of peripheral blood leukocytes via interferon-α-dependent apoptosis.”
    Vaccine, 31:2184-2190 (2013)
  • 10.Kaji T, Ishige A, Hikida M, Taka J, Hijikata A, Kubo A, Nagashima T, Takahashi Y, Okada M, Kurosaki, T., Ohara O, Rajewsky K and Takemori T.:
    “Distinct cellular pathways select germ-line encoded and somatically mutated antibodies into immunological memory.”
    J. Exp. Med. 209:2079-2097 (2012)

Lab Members

Principal investigator

Kazuhiko Yamamoto
Unit Leader

Core members

Michishige Harada
Technical Scientist
Natsumi Yoneda
Technical Staff II

Contact Information

North Research Building,
1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku,
Yokohama City, Kanagawa,
230-0045, Japan
Tel: +81-(0)45-503-7005
Fax: +81-(0)45-503-7010

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