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Medical Chemistry Lab
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A lab that uncovers innate immunity and inflammation by studying how RNA is degraded.
AboutAbout the lab
Searching for the brakes on inflammation through RNA.
The Medical Chemistry Lab (Takeuchi Lab) studies how inflammation arises and is regulated, from the perspective of innate immunity.
Immune activity is tightly controlled in the body, balancing the removal of pathogens against the risk of going too far and causing disease.
The lab focuses especially on how RNA is regulated inside cells, and investigates it using genetically modified mice and other approaches.
It aims to apply its findings to developing new ways to control diseases involving inflammation.
Key terms
- Innate immunity
- The immunity one is born with. It quickly detects pathogens and provides the first line of defense
- Cytokine
- A small protein released by immune cells and others. It acts on other cells to cause inflammation and other responses
- mRNA
- A molecule that copies the information of a gene and serves as the blueprint for making proteins
NewsLab news
A graduate student won the Excellent Poster Award at an immunology summer school
Published in Science on a mechanism that regulates mRNA stability through codon usage
Published in PLOS Pathogens that Regnase-1 in neutrophils is involved in the severity of COVID-19 pneumonia
Prof. Takeuchi received the Uehara Prize from the Uehara Memorial Foundation
A student received the Best Presentation Award at the Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Immunology
ResearchResearch themes
Innate immunity detects viral and bacterial infections through receptors such as Toll-like receptors and releases cytokines, causing inflammation. Inflammation is closely linked not only to infection but also to autoimmune diseases, cancer, and metabolic syndrome. The lab studies how inflammation caused by innate immunity is controlled in the body.
*Illustrative imageInnate immunity detecting viruses and bacteria
Viral and bacterial infections are detected by innate immune receptors, which then release inflammatory cytokines. The lab uses genetically modified animals to study the roles that the molecules transmitting this signal play in the body.
*Illustrative imageMechanisms that suppress inflammation
Too little cytokine causes immunodeficiency, while too much causes septic shock or autoimmune disease. The lab examines how the expression levels of inflammation-related genes are regulated, focusing on transcription and the steps after it, and explores how autoimmune diseases arise.
*Illustrative imageImmune regulation through RNA
The lab discovered Regnase-1, an enzyme that degrades cytokine mRNA, and showed that it is important for preventing autoimmune inflammation.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Medical Chemistry Lab (Takeuchi Lab) consist of faculty members, project researchers, researchers, graduate students, visiting researchers, secretaries, and temporary agency staff.As of 2026
- ProfessorOsamu Takeuchi
- Associate ProfessorTakuya Uehata
- Assistant ProfessorTakashi Mino
- Assistant ProfessorMasanori Yoshinaga
- Assistant ProfessorHidetaka Miyauchi
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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: “Macrophage by NIAID” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Innate immunity detecting viruses and bacteria: “Macrophage ( )” NIAID / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Mechanisms that suppress inflammation: “Cytokines (NIH BioArt )” Courtesy of NIAID Ryan Kissinger / Public domain (cropped)
- Immune regulation through RNA: “4OOG” Opabinia regalis / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (免疫細胞生物学): “Follicular helper T (Tfh) and T follicular regulatory (Tfr) cells both act in the germinal center (GC) to regulate the generation of antigen (Ag)-specific antibody-secreting cells” Xie MM and Dent AL / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (微生物感染症学): “Staphylococcus aureus VISA 2” Content Providers(s): CDC/ Matthew J. Arduino, DRPH Photo Credit: Janice Haney Carr / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (がん免疫応答制御): “Mitochondria 2 -- Smart-Servier” Laboratoires Servier / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (高次統御システム間
制御): “Mitochondria, mammalian lung - TEM” Louisa Howard / Public domain (cropped)
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