Unit Leader
Labs & Technologies
Epigenome Technology Exploration Unit
Solving the epigenomic codes
* Due to the reorganization starting as new centers in April 2018, this laboratory is now belong to the Center for Integrative Medical Sciences. As for the latest information, please see the following URL below.
> The webpage of Epigenome Technology Exploration Unit, Center for Integrative Medical Sciences
Unit Leader
Aki Minoda
W421, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama 230-0045 JAPAN
Tel: +81-(0)45-503-9309 (Ext. 8113)
Research Area
Our mission is to understand the very complex regulations of cellular functions and regulations at the epigenetic level, with focus on histone modifications. In recent years, a lot of data on the genome-wide localisation of histone modifications (the “Epigenome”) have been obtained and analysed. There are hundreds of possible combinations of modifications and there are in fact many modifications found at any given locus, which reflects the complex regulations it may be responsible for. However, whether a different combination of these modifications mean different things is still unclear, mainly due to the lack of technologies that can analyse them in such way.
One of the main focuses of our lab is to develop novel epigenomic technologies to study combinations of histone modifications that are present on each histone and nucleosome. By applying such methods to disease cells, including cancer, we aim to identify epigenomic signatures that may exist, which may lead to identification of novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets.