Name of Supervisor: Makoto Ujike, Ph. D. (Medical Science)
Position: Associate professor
Researchmap
KAKEN researcher number: 50415478
ORCID ID：0000-0002-7145-7126
Main research theme: Viral infectious diseases
Research keywords: Coronavirus, Torovirus, Reverse genetics, Vaccine, Anti-viral strategy
Lab. Location: Veterinary infectious diseases, 5th floor, Building D
E-mail: ujike(@mark)nvlu.ac.jp
Research
Our laboratory primarily investigates coronaviruses (CoVs) and toroviruses (ToVs), which are important pathogens in veterinary medicine and medical science. Animal CoVs and ToVs cause a variety of diseases in domestic, companion, and laboratory animals, and human CoVs cause mild to severe respiratory diseases.
My research interests include the development of new vaccines and antiviral drugs and the elucidation of viral cellular entry and assembly mechanisms, mainly using animal CoVs (mouse hepatitis virus, porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, and bovine coronavirus) and animal ToVs (bovine and porcine ToVs). My aim is to gain insight into CoV and ToV infections and facilitate the development of novel anti-CoV and -ToV strategies.
My current research interests are as follows:
1.Development of enterophilic attenuated bovine ToV vaccine vectors.
2.Development of anti-CoV drugs based on the drug-repositioning approach.
3.Establishment of reverse genetics systems (RGSs) for ToVs and CoVs.
4.Investigation of the cell entry and assembly mechanisms of ToVs and CoVs using RGSs.
Guidance policy for graduate students
I aim to provide graduate students with an environment conducive to novel research. To this end, I shall:
1.Discuss with students their work hours, vacation time, and health contingencies to help them stay healthy.
2.Provide helpful advice and openly communicate with students to enable them to complete their research in a timely and productive manner.
3.Take the time to discuss experiments and the interpretation of results to assist students in their research and enable them to acquire basic research skills.
4.Understand and respect the cultural backgrounds of my students.
Publications
※Underlined is undergraduate student, * is corresponding author, ♰ is first co-author
1.Ujike M*♰, Etoh Y♰, Urushiyama N, Taguchi F, Asanuma H, Enjuanes L, Kamitani W.
Reverse Genetics with a Full-Length Infectious cDNA Clone of Bovine Torovirus.
J Virol. 2022 96(3):e01561-21.
2.Ujike M*, Kawachi Y, Matsunaga Y, Etho Y, Asanuma H, Kamitani W, Taguchi F.
Characterization of Localization and Export Signals of Bovine Torovirus Nucleocapsid Protein Responsible for Extensive Nuclear and Nucleolar Accumulation and Their Importance for Virus Growth. J Virol. 2021 95(3):e02111-20.
3.Matsuyama S*, Kawase M, Nao N, Shirato K, Ujike M, Kamitani W, Shimojima M, Fukushi S.
The Inhaled Steroid Ciclesonide Blocks SARS-CoV-2 RNA Replication by Targeting the Viral Replication-Transcription Complex in Cultured Cells. J Virol. 2020 95(1):e01648-20.
4.Li Y♰, Watanabe E♰, Kawashima Y♰, Plichta DR, Wang Z, Ujike M, (23 others), Xavier RJ*, Atarashi K*, Honda K*.
Identification of trypsin-degrading commensals in the large intestine.
Nature. 2022 609(7927):582-589.
