Research Interests
Pathogenesis of systemic autoimmune diseases: My major research interests include the molecular understanding of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s syndrome, vasculitis, and other systemic autoimmune diseases. In particular, we aim to investigate the samples from the patients, coupled with the high-quality longitudinal clinical data from the patients. In 1990s, the peripheral blood from the patients with SLE were immunized to mice and generated a long list of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) reacting with the patients’ peripheral lymphocytes. By screening with the increased expression of the molecules recognized by the mAbs in SLE patients, compared to healthy individual, we identified increased expression of alpha4beta1 (α4β1)integrin with vasculitis, increased alphaEbeta7(αEβ7) with epithelitis, and down-regulated TCR(CD3) zeta expression in SLE. More recently, we utilize, whole or cell-specific RNA expression with gene chip, single cell RNA sequencing, and CyTOF for the analysis on the peripheral blood, synovium, salivary glands, and kidney samples from the patients. For the analysis, I strongly try to obtain the combined data from the longitudinal sampling, depending on the appropriate timing on the treatment, and the high-quality standardized clinical data to provide high-quality and reproducible outp

Clinical research for systemic autoimmune diseases: I participated in a number of pharmaceutical company-sponsored, physician initiated clinical trials and clinical studies as a principal investigator or an investigator. Particularly, I played a lead investigator for the global phase 3 clinical trials for RA with anti-IL-6 mAbs and Jak inhibitors. By these intense experiences with clinical trials and studies, I was nominated as a committee member for European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendation for RA in 2016 and 2019 and would be joining the meeting for 2022 revision as only one member from Japan.