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Outline

Light is a cutting-edge tool for life science research. Development of useful fluorescent probes and the advancement of light microscope technologies have brought us a new world of “live” imaging within a cell. We are developing super-resolution confocal live imaging microscopy (SCLIM) by the combination of a high-speed confocal scanner and a high-sensitivity camera system. With this method we will observe membrane trafficking and organellar dynamics in living cells at high-speed and sub-wavelength space resolution (4D) and elucidate underlining molecular mechanisms. We will also try to extend this technology to medical and pharmacological applications.

Fields

Biological Sciences, Complex systems, Interdisciplinary science and engineering, Biology / Biochemistry

Keywords

membrane traffic, vesicular transport, super-resolution live imaging, confocal microscopy, organelles

Subjects

1. Development of super-resolution live imaging microscopy
2. Molecular mechanisms of intracellular membrane trafficking

Selected Publications

1. Tojima, T., Suda, Y., Jin, N., Kurokawa, K., and Nakano，A.: “Spatiotemporal dissection of the Golgi apparatus and the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment in budding yeast”, eLife 13, e92900 (2024).
2. Obata, Y., Kurokawa, K., Tojima, T., Natsume, M., Shiina, I., Takahashi, T., Abe, R., Nakano, A., and Nishida, T.: “Golgi retention and oncogenic KIT signaling via PLCγ2-PKD2-PI4KIIIβ activation in gastrointestinal stromal tumor cells”, Cell Rep. 42, 113035 (2023).
3. Toshima, J. Y., Tsukahara, A., Nagano, M., Tojima, T., Siekhaus, D. E., Nakano, A., and Toshima, J.: “The yeast endocytic early/sorting compartment exists as an independent sub-compartment within the trans-Golgi network”, eLife 12, e84850 (2023).
4. Shimizu, Y., Takagi, J., Ito, E., Ito, Y., Ebine, K., Komatsu, Y., Goto, Y., Sato M., Toyooka, K., Ueda, T., Kurokawa, K., Uemura, T., and Nakano, A.: “Cargo sorting zones in the trans-Golgi network visualized by super-resolution confocal live imaging microscopy in plants” , Nat. Commun. 12:1901 (2021).
5. Rodriguez-Gallardo, S., Kurokawa, K., Sabido-Bozo, S., Cortes-Gomez, A., Ikeda, A., Zoni, V., Aguilera-Romero, A., Perez-Linero, A. M., Lopez, S., Waga, M., Araki, M., Nakano, M., Riezman, H., Funato, K., Vanni, S., Nakano, A., and Muñiz, M.: “Ceramide chain length-dependent protein sorting into selective endoplasmic reticulum exit sites” , Sci. Adv. 6:eaba8237 (2020).

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