NEWS

Discovery of a new therapeutic method to prevent the progress of a chronic kidney disease

Prof. Takaaki Abe, Division of Medical Science, Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering working in collaboration with a group of researchers including Prof. T. Soga of the Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, has discovered a new therapeutic target of chronic kidney disease "OATP-R" in a kidney. The OATP-R possesses the ability to reduce the accumulation of uremic toxins, however, its effect diminishes under the condition of renal failure. This research group has discovered that various statins, used as hypolipidemics, upregulate the expression of OATP-R, thus, intake of those statins leads to accrual of OATP-R to discharge uremic toxins out of a body and improve organ dysfunction. This research has developed a new therapeutic method to prevent the progress of renal failure including introduction of dialysis.

The article of this discovery was published in the electronic version of Journal of American Society of Nephrology on October 29. http://jasn.asnjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ASN.2009070696

Two IAB-Keio University Spinout BioVentures selected among top 20 Most Promising University-based Startups by METI

Human Metabolome Technologies, Inc. (Head Office: Tsuruoka city, Yamagata Prefecture, President: Ryuji Kanno) and Spiber Inc. (Head Office: Tsuruoka city, Yamagata Prefecture, President: Kazuhide Sekiyama) recognized to be among the 20 Most Promising University-based Startups in "Report of Fundamental Survey on University-based Startups in FY 2008" by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)

Systematic identification of cell cycle-dependent yeast nucleocytoplasmic shuttling proteins by prediction of composite motifs

IAB scientists Dr. S. Kosugi and Prof. H. Yanagawa' just published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online (PNAS Online) on 11 June, 2009 results of a new study on nucleoplasmic shuttling proteins.

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Metabolomic Profiling of Anionic Metabolites by Capillary Electrophoresis Mass Spectrometry

A group of IAB researchers including Prof. T. Soga working in collaboration with colleagues at Agilent Technologies, Inc. published the findings of a new study entitled "Metabolomic Profiling of Anionic Metabolites by Capillary Electrophoresis Mass Spectrometry" in Analytical Chemistry on 12 June, 2009.

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Dr. Fujishima wins Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology (NRMCB) Poster Prize at RNA2009

IAB scientist Dr. Fujishima was awarded Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology (NRMCB) Poster Prize at The 14th annual meeting of the RNA Society (RNA2009).The title of the poster is "Tri-split tRNA: A novel type of transfer RNA produced from three transcripts via trans-splicing",the world's first discovery of genes in jigsaw-like pieces from an archaeon living in hot spring.

Measurement of internal body time by blood metabolomics

A study by a group of IAB researchers including Yuji Kakazu and Professor Tomoyoshi Soga working in collaboration with Yoichi Minami, Takeya Kasukawa and Hiroki R. Ueda, Team Leader, of Laboratory for Systems Biology and Functional Genomics Unit, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (Director: Masatoshi Takeichi) reveals a method for measuring bodily time by analyzing metabolic products in the blood using a combined liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry technique developed at IAB. This new approach to reading circadian status is published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online (PNAS Online) on 1 June, 2009.

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