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Recent years have witnessed growing clinical approvals of new drug classes, including nucleic acid therapeutics, gene therapy, and mRNA vaccines, changing the concept of drugs. These new classes of drugs control the functionalities of target genes and proteins to treat diseases at molecular levels, providing hopeful options for intractable disease treatment with reduced adverse effects. Developing such new drugs requires interdisciplinary research. For example, mRNA vaccine development involves chemistry and engineering for mRNA manufacturing and nano-drug delivery systems (DDS), molecular biology and immunology of mRNA, and medical research on vaccine effects and adverse outcomes. In this interdisciplinary field, our laboratory develops nano DDSs, evaluates their biological properties, and applies them to disease treatment, focusing on mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. Moreover, we attempt clinical translation in collaboration with companies. Notably, our research interests include basic research for understanding biological processes we observe in application studies.
Join Our Laboratory: Opportunities for Master's, Doctoral, and Postdoctoral Researchers
Graduate Students
Are you a motivated graduate student looking for an exciting research opportunity? Our laboratory is seeking talented individuals to join our team. We offer graduate programs for both master's and doctoral students, covering a wide range of topics from nano DDS technology development to biological evaluation and therapeutic applications. Regardless of your academic background, we welcome applicants from any field. You will have the flexibility to choose a research theme aligned with your academic interests. We are also happy to arrange laboratory tours, including online options, at your convenience. Feel free to contact us for more information and application details. (Detailed information )
Postdoctoral Researchers
Are you a postdoctoral researcher seeking a collaborative research environment? Look no further! Our laboratory welcomes postdocs to join our team. We provide a supportive atmosphere where you can further your research and contribute to cutting-edge discoveries. We encourage you to explore the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships.
News
The review paper, ”Multifunctional Immunoadjuvants for Use in Minimalist Nucleic Acid Vaccines”, authored by S. Abbasi and S. Uchida, was chosen as one of the Selected Papers in 2021 in the Section "Gene and Cell Therapy in Pharmaceutics".
Prof. Uchida delivered an oral presentation, titled “Naked mRNA Jet Injection into the Skin Enables the Robust Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in Mice and Cynomolgus Monkeys”, at 11th International mRNA Health Conference.
Our new research assistant, Victor Marx, and our new master's student, Naiya Ruzzama, have joined our Lab.
Our new research assistant, Reiko Shiratori, has joined our Lab.
The research about COVID-19 mRNA vaccines based on mRNA has been posted in bioRxiv.
Saed Abbasi, Miki Matsui-Masai, Fumihiko Yasui, Akimasa Hayashi, Theofilus Tockary, Shiro Akinaga, Michinori Kohara, Kazunori Kataoka*, Satoshi Uchida*, Jet injection potentiates naked mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in mice and non-human primates by adding physical stress to the skin, bioRxiv DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.27.530188
Research about cancer vaccines based on mRNA engineering, conducted by Prof. Uchida and Ms. Masai, et al. has been published in PNAS, along with a press release on EurekAlert.
Theofilus A. Tockary#, Saed Abbasi#, Miki Matsui-Masai, Akimasa Hayashi, Naoto Yoshinaga, Eger Boonstra, Zheng Wang, Shigeto Fukushima, Kazunori Kataoka*, Satoshi Uchida*, Comb-structured mRNA vaccine tethered with short double-stranded RNA adjuvants maximizes cellular immunity for cancer treatment, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120, e2214320120, (2023)
Prof. Uchida obtained a Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Pioneering) as a principal investigator (ref).
A review authored by Prof. Uchida, Prof. Miyata (the University of Tokyo) has been published in Advanced Drug Delivery Review.
Satoshi Uchida*, Chun Yin Jerry Lau, Makoto Oba, Kanjiro Miyata*, Polyplex Designs for Improving the Stability and Safety of RNA Therapeutics, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 199, 114972 (2023)
Collaborative research on the mRNA vaccine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, conducted by Prof. Uchida, Prof. Sawa, at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, et al., has been posted as a preprint.
Ken Kawaguchi, Mao Kinoshita, Kazuki Sudo, Keita Inoue, Yoshifumi Naito, Makoto Oba, Satoshi Uchida*, Teiji Sawa*, mRNA vaccine induces protective immunity against the type III secretory virulence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, bioRxiv DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.09.544431
Collaborative research with Prof. Uchida and Prof. Abe et al. at Nagoya University has been published in Nature Communications.
M Inagaki, N Abe, Z Li, Y Nakashima, S Acharyya, K Ogawa, D Kawaguchi, H Hiraoka, A Banno, Z Meng, M Tada, T Ishida, P Lyu, K Kokubo, H Murase, F Hashiya, Y Kimura, S Uchida, H Abe,Cap analogs with a hydrophobic photocleavable tag enable facile purification of fully capped mRNA with various cap structures, Nature Communications 14, 2657, (2023)
Prof. Uchida gave an invited lecture titled "Basics of mRNA Vaccine," at a seminar co-sponsored by Moderna Japan, Co., Ltd. at the 97th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases, the 71st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Chemotherapy, Joint Conference.
Prof. Uchida will give an online presentation titled "Nano-DDS Development for mRNA Vaccines and Drugs" at iSeminar on Wednesday, May 17, at 16:30. Everyone is welcome to join. [Registration]
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