Kenichi Miharada

Research Field

Stem cell biology, Hematopoiesis, Developmental biology, Feto-maternal regulation

Research Interests

The process of tissue regeneration and organ development are tightly regulated by complex mechanisms. Stem cells play major roles in these events, which are controlled at multiple levels. Disruption of the system has huge risks resulting in malignant transformation and developmental failure. Our team has previousy reported that proper control of protein folding is crucial for hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in order to inhibit elevation of unfloded protein response (UPR), and bile acid can support protein folding as a molecular chaperone. Importantly, we have demonstrated that maternal bile acid is an essential factor for fetal hematopoietic stem cells to expand in the fetal liver. Thus, we are particularly interersted in proteostatic and metabolic controls of stem cell regulation and feto-maternal regulation during the organ development. Our research output is expected to contribute to future stem cell therapies and improvement of pregnancy complications.

Our research therefore focuses on the following topics:

1. Investigating proteostatic controls in HSC

2. Discovering novel roles of bile acid and oxysterol in fetal organ development

3. Developing advanced technologies allowing efficient generation/expansion of HSC and red blood cells ex vivo

Key words

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC), unfolded protein response (UPR), endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, bile acid, oxysterol, feto-maternal correlation, fetal growth retardation (FGR), manufactured red blood cell (RBC)

Biography