Research Fields

In order to develop vaccines that can effectively prevent infectious diseases, it is necessary to understand the immunogenic mechanisms and to identify reliable methods to accurately measure the efficacy of vaccines. Recently, our laboratory has established an advanced animal model for studying the efficacy of cholera vaccine and explore the enhanced immunogenicity of cholera vaccine based on the interaction of cholera vaccine and intestinal metabolites. We also developed a highly-advanced method to measure the efficacy of cholera vaccine and contributed to the development of effective cholera vaccine approved by World Health Organization. In addition to cholera vaccine, we established vaccination for the enhancement of long-term effect of anthrax vaccine. Recently, our laboratory focuses on the development of advanced pneumococcal vaccines such as irradiated vaccines which is different from traditional manufacturing process by studying the association of innate immunity with acquired immunity. On the other hand, we are also interested in dendritic cells because they play a pivotal role in the modulation of immune responses by linking innate and adaptive immune responses. We study phenotypes and immuno-modulatory functions of dendritic cells that are generated in various conditions for identifying and preparing medically-useful dendritic cells to be used as a cell-based therapy.