Laboratory for Cellular Reprogramming
Research Unit Leader
Haruko OBOKATA (Ph.D.)
All organisms possess instincts to survive exposures to external stresses by adapting to their environment and, to some degree, regenerating injured tissues or organs. Thus, it is not surprising to observe dramatic cellular plasticity after exposure to significant external stresses, such as an injury. In both vertebrates and plants, cellular reprogramming can be induced by exposure to external stimuli. These facts suggest that organisms which possess a strong regenerative power educe great plasticity when exposed to external stresses and generate "stem cells" from somatic cells. Given these observations, true stemness seems to be linked to cellular plasticity. The main goal of our research is to elucidate the relationship between "stemness" and "cellular plasticity"
- Reprogramming mechanisms of mammalian somatic cells
- Creation of stem cells from somatic cells in vivo and in vitro
- Obokata H, Yamato M, Tsuneda S, Okano T.:
"Reproducible subcutaneous transplantation of cell sheets into recipient mice"
Nat Protoc. 2011 Jun 30;6(7):1053-9. - Pirraco RP, Obokata H, Iwata T, Marques AP, Tsuneda S, Yamato M, Reis RL, OkanoT.:
"Development of osteogenic cell sheets for bone tissue engineering applications."
Tissue Eng Part A. 2011 Jun;17(11-12):1507-15 - Obokata H, Kojima K, Westerman K, Yamato M, Okano T, Tsuneda S, Vacanti CA.:
"The potential of stem cells in adult tissues representative of the three germ layers."
Tissue Eng Part A. 2011 Mar;17(5-6):607-15.
Principal Investigator
- Haruko OBOKATA
- Research Unit Leader