Name: Dr. Yumi Izutsu

Position: Professor of Immunology and Developmental Biology

Research Description:

During vertebrate development, " the remodeling program" controls break and make body parts in order to complete the body form and to make it functional. In the mammals, the finger formation in a limb is a good example.Once a hand like a round lump is made,the remodelling program 'deletes' the tissue between fingers, and then five fingers are completed.
The most remarkable example od remodelling can be seen in the metamorphosis of anuran amphibian.　The larva of the anuran amphibians lose their tail, grow hands and feet, and transform into an adult frog during the course of metamorphosis.　It has been an established theory that this process, including the tail regression, advances autonomously by hormones. We propose a " new hypothesis" ,that the adult-type immune cells, which newly appear at metamorphosis, recognize and remove the larval tail tissue as non-self. This hypothesis is the completely new way of thinking, and there is no similar research in the world.　Therefore, our research is unique. Our goal is to test whether that the immune system not only has a"self- defense" function but also "remodeling" function.
We aim to solve the questions underlying the mechanism of an immune system involved in the "body modeling" during metamorphosis process at a molecular level.　

Those who are interested in our research please contact us!

Lab Memberships

Izutsu Lab (Principal Investigator/Director)

Contact Information

Address:
Department of Biology
Faculty of Science
Niigata University
Niigata
Japan

Web Page: https://www.sc.niigata-u.ac.jp/biologyindex/izutsu/e/e-welcome.html