Molecular Infection Dynamics
The Department of Molecular Infection Dynamics, in cooperation with Department of Exploratory Research for Drug Discovery aim to identify drug target molecules and to establish screening systems in order to find lead compounds with potential use for treatment, prophylaxis and transmission blocking against malaria.
Members
- Associate Professor
- Ken Daniel Inaoka
- Assistant Professor
- Takaya Sakura
- Research Fellow
- Yukiko Miyazaki
- Research Fellow
- Bundutidi Gloria Mavinga
- Research Fellow
- Tagod Mohammed Suliman Omer
- Research Fellow
- Masaharu Eriguchi
- Assistant
- Miyuki Kasai
Activities
This Department conduct research on microaerophilic metabolism conserved in several pathogens such as parasites (protozoa and helminth) and bacteria, in order to understand the molecular mechanism of parasitism phenomena.
We utilize multidisciplinary approaches, consisted by biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics, structural biology and chemical biology, to conduct our basic and applied research.
Our target infectious diseases include protozoan parasites such as Plasmodium spp., Theileria spp., Trypanosoma cruzi, T. brucei and Leishmania spp.; helminthes such as Ascaris suum, Anisakis spp., Haemonchus contortus and Fasciola spp., and bacterial pathogens such as Mycobacterium spp., Campyrobacter jejuni and Helicobacter pylori.
We also conduct research on cancer. Intestinal parasites have evolved sophisticated machinery to adapt and survive in hypoxic and nutrient deprived environment (microenvironment). Certain type of cancer cells also possess similar machinery to survive under tumor microenvironment.
Our activities are supported by research grants acquired from KAKENHI (MEXT), AMED, GHIT and Private Companies.
Recent main research achievement
- Komatsuya et al. Pharmaceuticals (Basel) 2022;15(7):903.
- Acharjee et al. Int J Mol Sci 2021;22(15):7830.
- Talaam et al. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2021;65(10):e0041821.
- Villafraz et al. mBiol 2021;12(3):e0037521.
- Nurkanto et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2021;11:639065.