Members
Osamu ONODERA
Taisuke KATO
Research Focus
Our brain diseases are unique, while we have no therapeutic strategy for these diseases. We aim to develop diagnostic methods and therapeutic strategies for these diseases. For this purpose, we have to know the unique property of the brain and brain diseases. The brain has a neurovascular network consisting of unique cells. Most of the brain disease is accumulating the particular protein within distinct nervous systems. We focus on both these characters in our research by using more than thousand human brain samples stored in our institute. The brain bank gives us an excellent opportunity to elucidate the human brain disease. Our current research projects are, 1) elucidation of a fluctuation of RNA metabolism in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, 2) explanation of a mechanism for maintaining the neurovascular coupling which contributes a higher function of our brain, 3) developing the therapy and the new evaluation system for ataxia. From an entirely new perspective, we will address these issues.
A, B）Cerebral small vessels from a patient with CARASIL
C, D）Cerebral small vessels from a control subject
A, C）Elastica van Gieson staining
B, D）TGF-β immunostaining
The vascular walls in the patient with CARASIL show marked mural cell degeneration and accumulation of TGF-β.
A, C）Spinal motor neurons from a control subject
B, D）Spinal motor neurons from a patient with ALS
A, B）Hematoxylin staining
C, D）TDP-43 mRNA in situ hybridization
Motor neurons in patients with ALS show increased cytoplasmic localization of TDP-43 mRNA.
