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Biopharmaceutics Lab
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A lab that investigates why drug side effects occur, with the aim of predicting them.
AboutAbout the lab
Toward drugs whose side effects can be predicted in advance.
The Biopharmaceutics Lab studies the pharmacokinetics of drugs and drug candidate compounds (how they behave in the body) and their adverse effects, such as side effects.
Even when no problems appear in test tubes or mice, unexpected side effects often emerge only once a drug is used in humans.
The lab aims to clarify the mechanisms of side effects at the molecular level and, on that basis, to develop methods for predicting them in advance.
It focuses in particular on injury to the liver, the central organ for drug metabolism and excretion.
Key terms
- Pharmacokinetics
- The process by which a drug moves through the body, is metabolized, and is excreted
- Drug-induced liver injury
- Damage to the liver caused by a drug or its metabolites. Also called DILI
- Autophagy
- A mechanism by which proteins and organelles inside a cell are broken down
- HLA
- Proteins on the cell surface that characterize "self." They help the immune system distinguish self from non-self
NewsLab news
A master's student won a Student Poster Presentation Award at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
Assistant Professor Akinori Takemura won the Encouragement Award of the Japanese Society of Toxicology
A paper on research targeting KRAS-mutant cancer cells that have become less sensitive to drugs was published in Communications Biology
A paper from joint research with the Central Institute for Experimental Animals was published in Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics
A student won the Best Presentation Award at the joint research presentation meeting for fourth-year students
ResearchResearch themes
The pharmacokinetics of a drug is closely linked to its side effects. The lab clarifies the mechanisms of side effects closely related to pharmacokinetics, with the aim of contributing to the development and use of safer drugs.
*Illustrative imageMechanisms of drug-induced liver injury
The lab has shown that species differ in how readily drugs cause mitochondrial injury, and that these differences are mainly due to differences in the amount of Cyclophilin D. The lab believes this will help predict drug-induced liver injury in humans more accurately.
*Illustrative imageHow the liver excretes foreign substances
The lab studies the transporters (MRP2 and BSEP) that work when drugs and other substances are excreted into bile. It has developed a method that uses sandwich-cultured hepatocytes to detect liver injury caused by drug inhibition of these transporters.
*Illustrative imageAutophagy and cancer cell metabolism
The lab found that suppressing glycolysis in cancer cells induces autophagy, which supports energy production in mitochondria. It also found that this occurs when glycolysis is suppressed by anticancer drugs, and that it affects the drugs' efficacy.
*Illustrative imageMechanisms of individual differences in side effects
The lab has created model mice carrying specific HLA genes and uses them to study the mechanisms behind individual differences in side effects that depend on a person's constitution. The model reproduces hypersensitivity caused by the anti-HIV drug abacavir.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Biopharmaceutics Lab consist of faculty and students in the doctoral, master's, and undergraduate programs.As of 2026
- ProfessorKosei Ito
- Associate ProfessorShigeki Aoki
- Assistant ProfessorAkinori Takemura
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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: “Atenolol tablets (UK)” Whispyhistory / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Mechanisms of drug-induced liver injury: “Liver Hepatocytes with Infiltrating CD3⁺ T Cells - Ksena Longrin” Morne Arin / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- How the liver excretes foreign substances: “Cell membrane detailed diagram ku” LadyofHats Mariana Ruiz / Public domain (cropped)
- Autophagy and cancer cell metabolism: “Fluorescence microscopy of the oral cancer cells” Korinna / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Mechanisms of individual differences in side effects: “DNA Double Helix by NHGRI” National Human Genome Research Institute / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Pharmaceutical Physical Chemistry Lab): “TMEM171 Structure Model” Bauma319 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Applied Genetic Resources Lab): “Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Garden - IMG 7240” Daderot / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Pharmacodynamics Lab): “Fluorescence.microscope2” Bioguy10 / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Clinical Pharmaceutics Lab): “Hospital Pharmacy” User:Mattes / Public domain (cropped)
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