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To understand and confront cancer - arguably humanity's destiny - we must grasp the control mechanisms of normal stem cells and identify cancer's vulnerabilities. Our lab focuses on how genetic information is distorted at the post-transcriptional RNA level, exemplified by splicing mechanism disruptions. Using blood cancers as our primary research model, we've discovered how chromatin remodeling factors, transcription factors, and signaling regulators are altered or lost due to RNA splicing abnormalities, subsequently dominating the transcription and proliferation mechanisms of other crucial genes. These findings hint at unknown control mechanisms that add new dimensions to the central dogma

These phenomena occur not only through trans-abnormalities like mutations or expression changes in RNA-binding proteins but also through cis-abnormalities such as intron mutations, observed across various cancers, including solid tumors. Cancer cell vulnerabilities exist in various post-transcriptional mechanisms, from RNA methylation to RNA transport and translation. We're pushing beyond "information rewriting" at the genomic and chromosomal levels to analyze pathologies at higher resolutions.

In the Department of Cancer Pathology, we're practicing a "new era of pathology" that illuminates the future of medicine and biology. We evaluate multi-cellular systems across scales, considering genomic mutations, post-transcriptional control, chromatin regulation, metabolic reprogramming, and cell death, using both basic and clinical approaches.

Our cancer pathology research bridges multiple fields, exploring connections between precancerous lesions and multi-organ interactions, evolutionary conservation and carcinogenesis, and cancer development and ontogeny. We're overcoming limitations of previous analytical techniques to reveal "where cancer comes from and where it's going" from multi-cellular system and temporal perspectives.

To effectively advance these goals, we're implementing single-cell analysis platforms, genome editing, and base editing for screening and cell lineage analysis. Through this new pathology, we're fostering the next generation of MD researchers.

We're committed to deepening our understanding of cancer and its therapeutic applications in collaboration with cancer researchers worldwide and cutting-edge scientists from other fields. Join us as we push the boundaries of cancer pathology and inspire a new generation of scientists to tackle one of humanity's greatest challenges!

Daichi Inoue
Professor, Department of Cancer Pathology
Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University