In the Skin Stem Cell Team, we focus on the epidermal stem cells and their behaviors. We conduct research on inflammatory skin diseases including psoriasis, skin cancer, wound healing, and aging. Additionally, we are working on elucidating the pathology and developing treatments for rare and intractable diseases such as epidermolysis bullosa and pachyonychia congenita. Along with the four faculty members, Ken Natsuga, Mika Watanabe, Shota Takashima, and Takuya Maeda, the team includes Hideyuki Kosumi (who obtained his PhD degree in 2022), Yosuke Mai (who obtained his PhD degree in 2022), Keiko Tokuchi (who obtained her PhD degree in 2023), Takuma Nohara, Takashi Seo, and Emi Inamura.
Major research results since 2016
- Increased Bacterial Load and Expression of Antimicrobial Peptides in Skin of Barrier-Deficient Mice with Reduced Cancer Susceptibility （Natsuga et al. J Invest Dermatol 2016)
- Type XVII collagen coordinates proliferation in the interfollicular epidermis （Watanabe, Natsuga et al. eLIFE 2017)
- Loss of interaction between plectin and type XVII collagen results in epidermolysis bullosa simplex （Natsuga et al. Hum Mutat 2017）
- Type XVII collagen interacts with the aPKC-PAR complex and maintains epidermal cell polarity（Watanabe, Natsuga et al. Exp Dermatol 2021)
- Hair follicle stem cell progeny heal blisters while pausing skin development （Fujimura, Natsuga et al. EMBO Rep 2021）
- Wnt/β-Catenin signaling stabilizes hemidesmosomes in keratinocytes (Kosumi, Natsuga et al. J Invest Dermatol 2022)
- Collagen XVII deficiency alters epidermal patterning (Wang, Natsuga et al. Lab Invest 2022)
- Detection of revertant mosaicism in epidermolysis bullosa through Cas9-targeted long-read sequencing (Natsuga, Furuta et al. Hum Mutat 2022a)
- Cas9-guided haplotyping of three truncation variants in autosomal recessive disease (Natsuga et al. Hum Mutat 2022b)