2025.11.17

Registration for the 43rd Chromosome Workshop / 24th Nuclear Dynamics Meeting is now open February 18–20, 2026, at Akiu Onsen in Sendai.Group Leader Yasukazu Daigaku of the Cancer Institute and Professor Masato Kanemaki.

2025.7.4

The research achievements of PhD student Moutushi Islam have been published in Journal of Cell Science. In this study, we developed a method to degrade GFP-tagged proteins as well as untagged endogenous proteins using AID2 in combination with single-chain antibodies. The paper was featured in the JCS Research Highlights, and an interview article with Moutushi Islam was also published.

2025.3.12

PhD student Yuki Hatoyama has received Morishima Award. This award recognizes outstanding research conducted by graduate students who carried out their thesis work in the SOKENDAI Genetics Program.

2025.1.25

We have released a reprint paper on a new degron technology at bioRxiv, the single-chain antibody–AID2 system. This project was carried out by PhD student Moutushi Islam.

2024.11.22

Postdoctoral researcher Xiaoxuan Zhu and PhD student Yuki Hatoyama received Excellent Poster Award at the 3R3C Symposium.

2024.9.20

At the 3rd Meeting of the Grant-in-Aid for Transformative Research Areas (A), “Protein Lifespan,” PhD students Moutushi Islam and Yuki Hatoyama received Student Poster Award.

2024.8.23

The research achievements of PhD students Yuki Hatoyama and Moutushi Islam have been published in EMBO Reports. In this study, they developed degron technologies capable of independently degrading two different proteins, as well as enhanced target protein degradation. Furthermore, using these methods, they generated cells that bypass DNA replication and enter mitosis. The announcement from NIG is here.

2024.7.3

Postdoctoral researcher Xiaoxuan Zhu has published a review article as the first author, discussing replication initiation sites in mammalian cells, in DNA Repiar.

2024.4.8

An article authored by Assistant Professor Kousuke Yamaguchi as the first and co-corresponding author has been published in Nature Communications. In this study, the contribution of UHRF1 to DNA methylation was analyzed in detail using the auxin-inducible degron system. This research was conducted at the Defossez laboratory in Paris, and Professor Kanemaki also participated as a collaborator.

2024.4.1

Kousuke Yamaguchi has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in our laboratory.

2024.3.23

We have published a new preprint paper on the degron technologies being developed in our laboratory in bioRxiv. This work is the result of a project carried out by graduate students Yuki Hatoyama and Moutushi Islam.

2024.2.28

Professor Kanemaki has received Teiichi Yamazaki Award. The award ceremony and the recipient’s lecture were held on February 28, 2024, at the Japan Academy Hall.

2023.8.21

Our collaborative research has been published in Science. In this study, we discovered that DONSON is essential for CMG helicase formation during the initiation of DNA replication, identifying it as a novel replication factor. Our laboratory contributed to this work by generating DONSON degron cell lines. For further details, please see here.

2023.8.3

Our collaborative research has been published in Nature. Our laboratory contributed by providing WAPL degron cell lines, which control the amount of cohesin loading.

2023.6.7

Yuki Hatoyama, who gave an oral presentation at Domestic 3R Workshop (Kyushu University), received the Student Award. Congratulations!

2023.5.5

We have published a review article on the function of MCMBP in Biochemical Society Transactions. PhD student Yuki Hatoyama wrote this review as the first author.

2023.4.28

Our collaborative research with Professor David Cortez (Vanderbilt University, USA) has been published in Science. In this study, we elucidated the RAD51-dependent fork reversal structures that form when replication forks stall.

2023.4.3

Yuto Takahashi, who recently obtained his PhD degree from Tohoku University, has joined our group as a postdoctoral researcher.

2023.2.29

As a JSPS Short-term Fellow, Gavin Dukett from Stony Brook University (NY) has joined us for a three-month research stay.

2022.11.28

Our collaborative research with Dr. Yasukazu Daigaku at Cancer Institute has been published in Nature Communications.

2022.11.12

We held NIG International Symposium, “Chromosome Replication in a New Era: An Old but Ever-New Question in Life Science.” Thank you very much to everyone who participated.

2022.6.14

A report on experiences traveling to international conferences has been published on the website of Molecular Biology Society of Japan.

2022.5.7

A News & Views article written by Professor Kanemaki has been published in Nature. In this piece, he highlights the role of the CDC7 kinase in DNA replication, as reported in a newly published Nature article.

2022.4.20

A new paper from our laboratory has been published in eLife. In this study, we discovered that MCMBP functions in assembling the MCM2–7 replicative helicase into its hexameric form. The AID2 system we developed was highly useful for this research.

2022.4.11

Two new members have joined our laboratory: PhD student Yuki Hatoyama and secretary Sumiko Furuse.

2022.2.17

Our collaborative research with Dr. Kayoko Tanaka of the University of Leicester (UK) has been published in Biology Open.

2022.2.9

We have posted our submitted manuscript as a preprint on bioRxiv. In this paper, we report that the factor MCMBP promotes the hexamer formation of the MCM2–7 replicative helicase.

2022.2.8

A paper on the application of AID2 in C. elegans has been published in Genetics. Information about the paper has also been posted on the NIG website.

2022.1.19

We have published a review article on ligand-dependent degron technologies in Current Opinion in Cell Biology.

2021.12.6

Atabek Bektash, a new SOKENDAI student (government-sponsored international student), has joined our laboratory.

2021.8.16

We have published a protocol paper on the AID2 system in Current Protocol.

2021.4.26

Our collaborative research with Dr. David Gilbert at Florida State University has been published in Science. An article about the work has also appeared on EurekAlert! and the NIG homepage.

2021.4.16

Our collaborative research with Professor Minoru Takata of Radiation Biology Center at Kyoto University has been published in Blood.

2021.3.18

The webinar that Professor Kanemaki delivered in February has been published on YouTube.

2021.3.16

Our AID2 paper ranked 12th among the most-downloaded life sciences articles published in Nature Communications in 2020.

2020.12.4

Moutushi Islam, a MEXT scholarship student, has joined our laboratory.

2020.11.26

An article on AID2 has been published in BioWorld.

2020.11.13

Our collaborative research with Dr. Tomomi Kiyomitsu of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology has been published in Current Biology.

2020.11.11

A new paper from our laboratory has been published in Nature Communications. In this study, we developed an improved version of the AID system (AID2) and demonstrated that it enables sharper protein degradation at lower ligand concentrations compared to the conventional method. We also showed that AID2 functions not only in yeast and cultured cells but also in mice.

• Research Highlights at the NIG website
• Press release from NIG
• Article from EurekAlert!

2020.11.3

Our collaborative research with Professor Anne Donaldson’s group at University of Aberdeen (UK) has been published in eLife.

2020.8.26

Professor Kanemaki wrote an article titled “Protein Knockdown Using the Auxin-Inducible Degron Method” for the September issue of Experimental Medicine, in the special feature on protein knockdown.

2020.6.25

A paper authored by our postdoctoral researcher Yuichiro Saito as the corresponding author has been published in Journal of Cell Science. In this study, he investigated how RIF1 regulates homologous recombination in a radiation dose–dependent manner. He was also featured in the journal’s “First Person” interview series.

2020.5.24

A new paper from our laboratory has been published in Pharmaceuticals. In this study, we report a new method for generating AID-mutant cells.

2020.4.30

Our collaborative research with Helfrid Hochegger’s group at the University of Brighton (UK) has been published in EMBO Journal.

2020.4.24

Our collaborative research with Associate Professor Hiroyuki Sasanuma of Kyoto University School of Medicine and colleagues has been published in iScience.

2020.4.21

Our collaborative research with Professor Ian Hickson’s group at the University of Copenhagen has been published in Cell Reports.