Prof. Kaoru Miyamoto Ph.D.

Name:

Kaoru MIYAMOTO

Title:

professor

Date of birth:

May 11, 1950

Field:

Molecular Bioloｇy and Endocrinology

Membership:

The Japan Endocrine Society, The Japanese Biochemical Society, The Endocrine Society, USA

Interests:

Playing and watching igo game.

Research Outline:

We have succeeded in converting mesenchymal stem cells into steroidogenic cells that can produce sex steroids or adrenal steroid hormones by introducing transcription factors, SF-1 or LRH-1 and stimulating with cAMP. This may provide a new therapeutic approach for patients who suffer from steroid hormone deficiency. We have been studying such stem cell differentiation mechanisms by revealing epigenetic changes during the differentiation such as DNA methylation and histone modifications. In addition we have isolated nuclear complexes associated with a transcription factor SF-1, and now we are going to characterize them. We also have been studying effects of environmental endocrine disrupters on reproductive health from molecular biological point of views by identifying endocrine disrupter sensitive-genes on reproductive organs.

Message:

We are now trying to make steriodogenic cells from pluripotent ES or iPS cells that have a potential to differentiate into every type of tissues or cells. At present, however, no one has succeeded in developing steriodogenic cells from those pluripotent cells. We welcome those students who will challenge such a difficult but entheusiastic research project.