Molecular Laboratory Medicine

　The department of Molecular Laboratory Medicine is a research department that aims to elucidate the pathophysiology of various diseases including malignancies and cardiovascular diseases with a view to develop new tests that will lead to clinical application. Our main research projects are as follows. 1) Analysis of mechanisms for metastasis/recurrence and tumor cell dormancy: Genomic instability is known to be associated with metastasis and therapy resistance. Furthermore, a subset of cancer cells adapt to the mechanical stress, which possibly enables their metastasis. We are elucidating the mechanism focusing on the relationships between genomic instability, metastasis and mechanics. 2) Functional analysis of responsible gene products for genomic stability: We are investigating how the mutations in the genes (e.g.,RNA helicases) affect genomic stability. 3) Elucidation of the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases by means of echocardiography: We are investigating evaluation methods and prognostic parameters of cardiovascular diseases including amyloidosis.