Joint Research Chair

Cutaneous Immunology and Microbiology

Overcoming skin diseases by clarifying their pathology from the perspective of the interaction between skin microorganisms and the host
  • High-resolution metatransprtomic analysis of skin microorganisms using newly developed single cell method
  • Deploying science from a new perspective through clinical researches
  • Discovering new gene mutations or epigenetic changes in microbiome and identifying new pathogenic roles in skin disease
  • Pursuing the interaction between skin barriers/immune responses of hosts and survival dynamics/evolution of microorganisms

Realizing skin health through high-resolution microbiome analysis, skin microbial interaction analysis model using iPS cells, and constructively designed clinical research

The skin is the largest organ in the human body that covers the outermost layer of humans and plays a diverse role essential for human homeostasis and life support through the interaction with the external environment. The microbiome living on the skin surface remained largely unknown due to limitations of the analytical method. However, through the recent improvement in the next-generation sequencer technology, the whole picture of skin surface microbiome, which had been unknown for many years, has been gradually revealed, and the interaction between the microbiome and host beyond our imagination, particularly the skin health and diseases, has been elucidated one after another, which is attracting attention.

In this joint research course, we will conduct qualitative analysis for each bacterial strain using our established new analysis method of metatranscriptome of skin microbiome, which exceeds the current technical limitations in the analysis of skin microbiome. In addition, through cooperation with other domestic research groups, we will explore how the skin microbiome behaves as an individual and as a group, using gene expression at a single bacterial cell level (bacterial single-cell analysis).

We will explore the role of skin microorganisms revealed in these analyses with 3D skin models using human iPS cells, design clinical research based on newly obtained knowledge, and pursue what is happening not only in the laboratory but also in patients. Through these research methods, we aim to realize healthy skin based on new science while making our best efforts to elucidate and overcome various skin diseases.