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Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University

Center of infection-associated cancer


Center of infection-associated cancer

 Manage the joint usage / research center and research on infectious cancers and SARS-CoV2 infection.

Outline

 As an affiliated facility of the Institute for Genetic Medicine (IGM), this center performs research on the development of cancers caused by infections, such as bacteria and viruses, and promotes exchanges and international collaborations with researchers in Japan and overseas. It was established in July 2008 for the purpose of forming a top-class research group on infectious cancers. In 2017, the "IGM Liaison Lab " including five virtual labs was set up to perform broad collaborations with international researchers in academia and industry. The first four labs are related to the induction process of infectious cancers including infection, oncogenesis, immune reaction, and inflammation induction, and the fifth develops new technology. Overall, these five labs are working on fusion research related to the infectious cancer field . The center is also responsible for the acquisition of intellectual properties, holding of symposiums, etc., and is establishing a new researcher community hub for the investigation of infectious cancers and returning the research results to society as drugs. The Liaison Lab received a next-generation sequencer (Nextseq2000) in 2020 and is establishing a genome analysis facility that will carry out genome and gene expression analyses. In 2018, the center was merged with the management office of the joint usage / research center to establish a more efficient system for infectious cancer research.The center has several research laboratories including a P3 animal facility and P2 laboratory and microscopy equipment such as a super-resolution confocal microscope, light sheet type microscope, and fluorescence microscope. We are conducting collaborative research with researchers in the field of infectious oncology. Our research can be summarized as three independent projects: (1) the development of new preventive and therapeutic methods for multiple infectious cancer types including HPV-positive cancer, (2) the establishment of mouse models of HPV (human papilloma virus)-positive cancers and COVID-19 cytokine storm, and (3) the mechanistic analysis of cytokine storm induction and development of new preventive and therapeutic methods.

Staff

PI, Professor Masahiro SONOSHITA, PhD
Professor Masaaki MURAKAMI, VMD-PhD
Professor Koji MORIISHI, VMD-PhD
Project Professor Masanori HATAKEYAMA, MD-PhD
Associate Professor Kumiko YOSHIMATSU, VMD-PhD
Associate Professor Naoko KAMIYA, PhD