Research Projects

Bone regeneration and reconstruction of jawbone and alveolar bone lost due to oral cancer or periodontal disease are important in the field of dentistry. As is common with many diseases, there are patients who cannot be saved because the biology of the disease is not fully understood. Basic research has the power to resolve this clinical limitation. Our research contributes to the development of medical and dental science.

Skeletal Stem Cells (SSCs) reside in bone and are said to have both the ability to proliferate on their own (self-renewal) and to differentiate into various cell types, including chondrocytes, osteoblasts, and adipocytes (multipotency). Recently, several groups, including us, have shown that SSCs are present in the growth plate cartilage and periosteum of long bones. In addition, SSCs have also long been considered to be present in the bone marrow and are thought to be involved in bone regeneration and cancer progression.
・Nature 563(7730):254-258, 2018

SSCs in bone marrow have long been thought to be at the pinnacle of the differentiation stream during bone regeneration and to differentiate in one direction to cause bone regeneration as the absolute cell of origin. However, no one has ever pointed out the location of SSCs precisely. We have discovered a completely new bone regeneration mechanism that terminally differentiated bone marrow stromal cells de-differentiated and acquire stem cell-like properties (cellular plasticity), and then re-differentiated into osteoblasts during bone regeneration. Our current challenge is to discover true SSCs, and at the same time, to elucidate the details of the bone regeneration mechanism.
・Nature Communications 11(1):332, 2020
・Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 36(6):1145-1158, 2021

SSCs play an important role in cancer progression. However, without a precise understanding of SSCs themselves, the full picture cannot be elucidated. We are trying to identify SSCs and elucidate the mechanism of how they are involved in cancer development.

We promote the interdisciplinary approach from various perspectives, such as basic x clinical, medical x dental, life science x computer science, biology x chemistry/engineering, and mechanism x drug discovery/medical materials, to create innovations.