We expect that our studies will help us to understand the mechanisms underlying diseases including birth abnormality, neuropsychiatric disorders, and immune disorders, giving us a new window into therapeutic strategies for nerve injury, Alzheimer’s disease, neuropsychiatric disorders, and cancer metastasis. We recently reported “Grip & Slip mechanism” for axon guidance; this mechanism is disrupted in a human patient of L1-CAM/CRASH syndrome, suffering corpus callosum agenesis and corticospinal tract hypoplasia. We are also currently analyzing the molecular mechanisms for immune cell migration and tumor cell metastasis.

Reference

1. Abe, K., Katsuno, H., Toriyama, M., Baba, K., Mori T., Hakoshima T, Kanemura Y., Watanabe, R. and Inagaki, N. (2018)
   Grip and slip of L1-CAM on adhesive substrates direct growth cone haptotaxis, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA,115, 2764-2769. doi:10.1073/pnas.1711667115 (LINK)
   (Medicalxpress),(ScienceDaily),(EurekAlert!),(AsianScientist)