Department of Molecular Protozoology

Staff:

Professor(SUP)

Toshihiro Horii, Ph.D.

Specially Appointed Associate Professor

Palacpac, Nirianne Marie Querijero, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Takahiro Tougan, Ph.D.

Nobuko Arisue, Ph.D.

Specially Appointed Researcher

Masanori Yagi, Ph.D.

Guest Professor

Kazuyuki Tanabe, Ph.D.

Eisaku Kimura, M.D., Ph.D.

Subjects:

1. Development of malaria vaccine based on Plasmodium falciparum SERA5.
2. Development of a novel vaccine adjuvant and elucidation of its mechanism of action.
3. Study on host-parasite interaction of malaria infection.
4. Study on phylogeny and evolution of SERA multi-gene family in the genus Plasmodium.

Papers published in 2013

1. Plasmodium falciparum mitochondrial genetic diversity exhibits isolation-by-distance patterns supporting a sub-Saharan African origin.

   Kazuyuki Tanabe, Thibaut Jombart, Shun Horibe, Nirianne M Q Palacpac, Hajime Honma, Shin-Ichiro Tachibana, Masatoshi Nakamura, Toshihiro Horii, Hirohisa Kishino and Toshihiro Mita

   Mitochondrion, 13 (6), 630-636, 2013.
2. Association of naturally acquired IgG antibodies against Plasmodium falciparum serine repeat antigen-5 with reduced placental parasitemia and normal birth weight in pregnant Ugandan women: a pilot study.

   Tonny J Owalla, Nirianne Marie Q Palacpac, Hiroki Shirai, Toshihiro Horii and Thomas G Egwang

   Parasitol Int, 62 (3), 237-239, 2013.
3. Endemic Burkitt lymphoma is associated with strength and diversity of Plasmodium falciparum malaria stage-specific antigen antibody response.

   Peter Aka, Maria Candida Vila, Amar Jariwala, Francis Nkrumah, Benjamin Emmanuel, Masanori Yagi, Nirianne Marie Q Palacpac, Maria V Periago, Janet Neequaye, Christine Kiruthu, Takahiro Tougan, Paul H Levine, Robert J Biggar, Ruth M Pfeiffer, Kishor Bhatia, Toshihiro Horii, Jeffrey M Bethony and Sam M Mbulaiteye

   Blood, 122 (5), 629-635, 2013.
4. Fatal sepsis caused by an unusual Klebsiella species that was misidentified by an automated identification system.

   Masafumi Seki, Kazuyoshi Gotoh, Shota Nakamura, Yukihiro Akeda, Tadashi Yoshii, Shinichi Miyaguchi, Hidenori Inohara, Toshihiro Horii, Kazunori Oishi, Tetsuya Iida and Kazunori Tomono

   J Med Microbiol, 62 (Pt 5), 801-803, 2013.
5. Phase 1b randomized trial and follow-up study in Uganda of the blood-stage malaria vaccine candidate BK-SE36.

   Nirianne Marie Q Palacpac, Edward Ntege, Adoke Yeka, Betty Balikagala, Nahoko Suzuki, Hiroki Shirai, Masanori Yagi, Kazuya Ito, Wakaba Fukushima, Yoshio Hirota, Christopher Nsereko, Takuya Okada, Bernard N Kanoi, Kohhei Tetsutani, Nobuko Arisue, Sawako Itagaki, Takahiro Tougan, Ken J Ishii, Shigeharu Ueda, Thomas G Egwang and Toshihiro Horii

   PLoS One, 8 (5), e64073, 2013.
6. Diversity of mitochondrial genome structure in the phylum Apicomplexa.

   Kenji Hikosaka, Kiyoshi Kita and Kazuyuki Tanabe

   Mol Biochem Parasitol, 188 (1), 26-33, 2013.
7. Metagenomic profile of gut microbiota in children during cholera and recovery.

   Shirajum Monira, Shota Nakamura, Kazuyoshi Gotoh, Kaori Izutsu, Haruo Watanabe, Nur Haque Alam, Takaaki Nakaya, Toshihiro Horii, Sk Imran Ali, Tetsuya Iida and Munirul Alam

   Gut Pathog, 5 (1), 1, 2013.
8. TLR9 adjuvants enhance immunogenicity and protective efficacy of the SE36/AHG malaria vaccine in nonhuman primate models.

   Takahiro Tougan, Taiki Aoshi, Cevayir Coban, Yuko Katakai, Chieko Kai, Yasuhiro Yasutomi, Ken J Ishii and Toshihiro Horii

   Hum Vaccin Immunother, 9 (2), , 2013.
9. Within-population genetic diversity of Plasmodium falciparum vaccine candidate antigens reveals geographic distance from a Central sub-Saharan African origin.

   Kazuyuki Tanabe, Toshihiro Mita, Nirianne M Q Palacpac, Nobuko Arisue, Takahiro Tougan, Satoru Kawai, Thibaut Jombart, Fumie Kobayashi and Toshihiro Horii

   Vaccine, 31 (9), 1334-1339, 2013.

Link

http://www.biken.osaka-u.ac.jp/