Department of Functional Analysis

Fumitaka Takeshita, Megumi Miyagi

Introduction

The Department of Functional Analysis carries out functional analysis for the development of scientifically based diagnosis and pre-clinical studies in cooperation with other departments in the Fundamental Innovative Oncology Core Center (FIOC).

In 2016, we have supported the following projects;

1)The project in the FIOC for the establishment of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) and cell lines

2)Investigator-initiated clinical trial for treatment-resistant breast cancer patients with novel siRNA against ribophorin II (RPN2) gene

3)Development of Diagnostic Technology for Detection of miRNA in Body Fluids, grant from AMED

4)Training and counseling for techniques of the development of cancer model with experiments animals, and in vivo imaging for cancer model animals

Research activities

In our laboratory, evaluation of treatments with cancer model studies and imaging for the gene medicine molecule such as microRNA are done by making good use of the imaging device that detects luminescence and fluorescence from living animals (Kubota, Sarcoma, Mura, Oncotarget, Hirahata, Cancer Med., Shimomura, Cancer Res.).

Clinical trials

Investigator-initiated clinical trial (first-in-human Phase I study) for treatment-resistant breast cancer patients with novel siRNA against ribophorin II (RPN2) gene was started in July 2015. This clinical trial is conducted by the Department of Breast and Medical Oncology in the NCC Hospital. We have evaluated the POC of RPN2-siRNA using clinical samples.