RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences Laboratory for Gene Structure and Regulation
Team Director: Yasuhiro Murakawa (M.D., Ph.D)
Research Summary

Our research team is dedicated to systematically dissecting biological systems at single-cell resolution to elucidate disease pathogenesis and uncover novel therapeutic targets. Central to our efforts is the development of an original and conceptually innovative spatial omics methodology grounded in next-generation sequencing technologies. This approach aims to identify previously uncharacterized molecules and cellular subpopulations, reveal novel biological phenomena and concepts, and ultimately contribute to the advancement of human health.
Main Research Fields
- Medicine, Dentistry & Pharmacy
Related Research Fields
- Informatics
- Complex Systems
- Biology
- Genomic Sciences
Keywords
- Genomic Sciences
- Enhancer
- Bioinformatics
- Genomic Medicine
- RNA biology
Selected Publications
Papers with an asterisk(*) are based on research conducted outside of RIKEN.
- 1.
Oguchi A, Suzuki A, Komatsu S, Yoshitomi H, Bhagat S, Son R, Bonnal RJP, Kojima S, Koido M, Takeuchi K, Myouzen K, Inoue G, Hirai T, Sano H, Takegami Y, Kanemaru A, Yamaguchi I, Ishikawa Y, Tanaka N, Hirabayashi S, Konishi R, Sekito S, Inoue T, Kere J, Takeda S, Takaori-Kondo A, Endo I, Kawaoka S, Kawaji H, Ishigaki K, Ueno H, Hayashizaki Y, Pagani M, Carninci P, Yanagita M; ITEC Consortium; Parrish N, Terao C, Yamamoto K, Murakawa Y.
"An atlas of transcribed enhancers across helper T cell diversity for decoding human diseases."
Science. 385(6704): eadd8394. (2024) - 2.
Hirabayashi S., Bhagat S., Matsuki Y., Takegami Y., Uehata T., Kanemaru A., Itoh M., Shirakawa K., Takaori-Kondo A., Takeuchi O., Carninci P., Katayama S., Hayashizaki Y., Kere J., Kawaji H., Murakawa Y.
"NET-CAGE Characterizes Dynamics and Topology of Human Transcribed Cis-regulatory Elements."
Nature Genetics, 51(9):1369-1379 (2019) - 3.
Yoshihara M., Araki A., Kasama Y., Sunayama M., Abe M., Nishida K., Kawaji H., Hayashizaki Y., Murakawa Y.
"Hotspots of de novo point mutations in induced pluripotent stem cells."
Cell Reports, 21:308-315. (2017) - 4.
Murakawa, Y., Yoshihara, M., Kawaji H., Nishikawa M., Zayed H., Suzuki H., Fantom Consortium, Hayashizaki Y.
"Enhanced identification of transcriptinal enhancers provides mechanistic insights into diseases."
Trends in Genetics 32:76-88. (2016) - 5.
*Murakawa, Y., Hinz, M., Mothes, J., Schuetz, A., Yasuda, T., Mastrobuoni, G., Friedel, C.C., Dolken, L., Kempa, S., Schmidt-Supprian, M., Heinemann, U., Wolf, J, Scheidereit, C., Landthaler, M.
"RC3H1 represses the IKK/NF-κB negative feedback regulator A20 by binding to a 3’UTR composite structure-sequence element."
Nature Communications, 6:7367. (2015) - 6.
*Mino, T., Murakawa, Y., Fukao, A., Vandenbon, A., Wessels, H., Ori, D., Uehata, T., Tartey, S., Akira, S., Suzuki, Y., Vinueesa, GG., Ohler, U., Standley, DM., Landthaler, M., Fujiwara, T., Takeuchi, O.
"Regnase-1 and Roquin Regulate a Common Element in Inflammatory mRNAs by Spatiotemporally Distinct Mechanisms."
Cell, 161 1058-1073. (2015) - 7.
*Rybak-Wolf, A. (#), Jens, M. (#), Murakawa, Y. (#), Herzog, M., Landthaler, M., Rajewsky, N.
"A variety of Dicer substrates in human and C.elegans."
Cell, 159 1153-1167. (2014) - 8.
*Schuetz, A., Murakawa, Y., Rosenbaum, E., Landthaler, M., Heinemann, U.
"Roquin binding to stem-loop mRNAs induces protein dimerization and involves a winged helix-turn-helix motif."
Nature Communications, 5 5701. (2014) - 9.
*Baltz, AG., Munschauer, M., Schwanhausser, B., Vasile, A., Murakawa, Y., Schueler, M., Youngs, N., Penfold-Brown, D., Drew, K., Milek, M., Wyler, E., Bonneau, R., Selbach, M., Dieterich, C., Landthaler, M.
"The mRNA-bound proteome and its global occupancy profile on protein-coding transcripts."
Molecular Cell, 46 674-690. (2012) - 10.
*Murakawa, Y., Sonoda, E., Barber, L.J., Zeng, W., Yokomori, K., Kimura, H., Niimi, A., Lehmann, A., Zhao, G.Y., Hochegger, H., Boulton, SJ., Takeda, S.
"Inhibitors of the proteasome suppress homologous DNA recombination in mammalian cells."
Cancer Research, 67, 8536-8543. (2007)
Recent Research Results
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Yasuhiro Murakawa
- Team Director
Core members
- Akiko Oguchi
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Raku Son
- Research Associate
- Tomoya Hirai
- Student Trainee
- Hiroki Sai
- Junior Research Associate
- Kanako Terakawa
- Student Trainee
- Hiromi Sano
- Technical Staff I
- Tomoko Hirata
- Technical Scientist
- Yumiko Yamamoto
- Technical Scientist
Contact Information
1-7-22, Suehiro-cho,
Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama,
Kanagawa, Japan
Email: yasuhiro.murakawa@riken.jp