Laboratory of Precision Immunology

1. Members

*1: Primary affiliation: Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Osaka

As of June 30, 2025

2. Background and Objectives

Our laboratory is located within the Center for Intractable Diseases and ImmunoGenomics. Our objective is to promote patient-centered, clinically-oriented drug discovery research, focusing on immunological studies of infectious diseases and hard-to-treat cancers. By leveraging our strength—an advanced immunological analysis platform—we aim to unravel the diverse immune phenotypes observed in non-human primates and human clinical specimens. Ultimately, we strive to translate these findings into the development of novel vaccines and immunotherapies.

3. Overview of our research

Section. 1 Establishment of an Advanced Immunological Analysis Platform

We believe that a more advanced analytical infrastructure than ever before is essential to understanding the complexities of the human immune system and identifying critical issues. To this end, our laboratory has established a world-class analytical platform—the "Advanced Immunological Analysis Platform"—capable of multidimensional, high-resolution analysis of individual variations in the immune system and responses to immunogens. Please visit Laboratory of Precision Immunology for detail.

By leveraging this platform to analyze diverse human clinical specimens, we aim to identify limitations in current vaccines and therapies. Our goal is to validate novel therapeutic approaches or diagnostic biomarkers that address these challenges through in vivo preclinical studies using rodents and non-human primates, with the ultimate ambition of translating these breakthroughs back to clinical practice.

Section. 2 Drug discverry research that tates into account individual differences in immunology

We aim to develop immunological analysis systems directly linked to clinical application, search for biomarkers, and establish novel preventive and therapeutic strategies. To achieve this, we conduct side-by-side comparative analyses of human clinical specimens, genetically modified mouse models, and non-human primate samples. Our research is primarily built upon two main pillars: cancer-related research and infectious disease-related research. Please visit Laboratory of Precision Immunology for detail.

 Infectious disease-related work

1. Developing immunotherapies to achieve an AIDS cure
2. HTLV-1–associated Diseases (ATL/HAM): Immunogenomic and Multi-omics Analysis of Disease States
3.  Research and Development of Novel COVID-19 Vaccines
4. Application to Influenza Vaccine Development
5. Development of Dengue Fever Vaccines
6. Development of a Therapeutic Vaccine for Hepatitis B Virus Aimed at Achieving a Functional Cure

 Cancer-related work

1. Establishment of a Platform for Immunotherapy Development Using mRNA/saRNA Modalities
2. Development of Novel Immunotherapies for Hard-to-Treat Cancers
3. Immunogenomic and Multi-omics Analysis of Refractory Cancers, Including Pancreatic Cancer

Laboratory of Precision Immunology