Development and application of an experimental system to analyze centromere dysfunctions that promote cancer

Professor Tatsuro Fukagawa, Department of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Genetics
Tetsuya Hori, assistant professor and representative researcher
(FY2010-2012)

Aims and Expected Results of Research

Centromere is the official term for the intersecting region of the X chromosome. During cell division, the centromere plays a central role in distributing the chromosome to the newly divided cells. Thus, dysfunction in the centromere results in dysfunction in the chromosomes of the sister cells after division.
Our research aims to clarify the relation between the influence of a dysfunctional centromere, which affects even carcinogenesis, and chromosomal instability. At the same time, in order to optimize the efficiency of this study, we will also aim to develop an experimental system to effectively manufacture cells with a dysfunctional centromere.
It is also anticipated that, as a ripple effect, cancer markers based on proteins brought to light by functionalities found in this study will, upon further research, be linked to the development of antibody drugs.

FY2011 results

1. We shed light on the structural arrangement of a new centromere protein complex.
   This newly elucidated structure is not only of great interest to basic biology, but also deserves attention from the standpoint of drug design.

2. We published 5 papers including 2 in Cell magazine.
3. Products / Trials ：We completed 2 kinds of vector product trials at BioROIS.