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Matsura Lab
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The lab explores how viruses multiply inside cells, cause disease, and evade the host's immune system.
AboutAbout the lab
Living with viruses and exploring how infection works
The Virus Control Group (Matsura Lab) studies viruses with pandemic potential.
Viruses are organisms that can multiply only inside living cells, and to the cell they are unwelcome guests.
Focusing on hepatitis C virus, the lab investigates how viruses multiply inside cells, cause disease, and evade the immune system.
The lab belongs to the Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research and the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases at the University of Osaka, and brings together people from varied backgrounds such as agriculture, medicine, engineering, and science.
Key terms
- Host factor
- A molecule in the infected cell that is involved when a virus multiplies
- Innate immunity
- A mechanism in which cellular sensors detect a virus and induce the production of interferon
- Core protein
- One of the proteins that make up the HCV particle. It forms the nucleocapsid together with the genomic RNA
ResearchResearch themes
Viruses can multiply only in living cells, and when infection occurs, the body tries to eliminate them. Focusing on hepatitis C virus, this lab investigates how viruses multiply inside cells, cause disease, and evade the host's immunity.
*Illustrative imageHost Factors That Support HCV Replication
The lab studies the molecules on the host cell side that are involved in how HCV multiplies. It found a cellular molecule that binds to the viral replication complex and confirmed that suppressing its expression markedly weakens HCV replication.
*Illustrative imageCells That Can Grow HCV from Patient Serum
The lab aims to build a cell culture system that can propagate authentic HCV found in patient serum. By supplying the host factors essential for HCV infection and growth, it is working to establish cell lines in which serum-derived HCV can multiply.
*Illustrative imageCore Protein, Liver Carcinogenesis, and Pathogenicity
Persistent HCV infection is known to progress through fatty liver and cirrhosis to hepatocellular carcinoma. The lab has reported that in mice expressing the core protein, deleting the PA28γ gene eliminates the development of hepatocellular carcinoma, showing that PA28γ plays a major role in the manifestation of pathogenicity.
*Illustrative imageHow HCV Evades Innate Immunity
The lab studies how HCV evades the host's innate immunity. In cells expressing NS5A, activation of inflammatory cytokines was suppressed, and the lab showed that this may be one factor behind the reduced responsiveness of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in patients with chronic hepatitis C.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Virus Control Group (Matsura Lab) consist of faculty, postdocs, PhD and master's students, laboratory assistants, secretaries, and visiting professors and researchers.
- ProfessorYoshiharu Matsura
- Project Associate ProfessorSaaya Nakagome
- Project Associate ProfessorShuhei Taguwa
- Project Associate ProfessorChikako Ono
- Project Assistant ProfessorKentaro Uemura
- Project Assistant ProfessorJunki Hirano
- Project Assistant ProfessorKazuma Okada
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Hepatitis C” NIH Image Gallery / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Host Factors That Support HCV Replication: “HCV EM picture 2” HCV_pictures.png: Maria Teresa Catanese, Martina Kopp, Kunihiro Uryu , and Charles Rice derivative work: TimVickers (talk) / Public domain (cropped)
- Cells That Can Grow HCV from Patient Serum: “Hepatitis C virus ELISA Test” Ajay Kumar Chaurasiya / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Core Protein, Liver Carcinogenesis, and Pathogenicity: “Stage of liver damage high” NIDDK / Public domain (cropped)
- How HCV Evades Innate Immunity: “1RH2 Recombinant Human Interferon-Alpha 2b-01” Nevit Dilmen / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Kobayashi Lab): “Multiple rotavirus particles” Dr Graham Beards / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tetsuya Lab): “TCBS agar plate of Vibrio Cholerae and vibrio parahaemolyticus” Chainwit. / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Horii Lab): “Plasmodium falciparum smear” Paulo Henrique Orlandi Mourao / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Yamazaki Lab): “RNA pol” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
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