Research Area

• Development of the Functional Molecules in Cell Chemistry
• Chemical Biology

Research Subjects

• Development of Reactive Intelligent Molecules for the Regulation of Gene Expression in Cell
• Detection of RNA and DNA Point Mutations in Cell by Intelligent Molecules
• Development of the Strategy for the Multi-Targeting for Gene Expression and Signal Transduction in Cell

Overview of Research

Our research activities have focused on the creation of functional molecules that exhibit specific recognition and reaction to the DNA and RNA. The functional oligonucleotides incorporating such an intelligent agents would enable chemical modulation of gene expression with high sequence-selectivity at a single nucleoside level. Recent progress in our group includes achievement of highly efficient cross-linking reaction with specificity toward cytosine at the target site. We have applied the new cross-linking agent to antisense inhibition of gene expression in cell. Now, we study about higher functional intelligent molecules for regulation of gene expression. We expect that our research can be expanded to "In Cell Chemistry" in future.

Selected Publications

1. T.Akisawa, K. Yamada, F. Nagatsugi, Synthesis of peptide nucleic acids(PNA) with a crosslinking agent to RNA and effective inhibition of dicer, Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 26, 5902-5906 (2016)
2. S.Kusano, S. Ishiyama, Sik Lok Lam, T. Mashima, M. Katahira, K. Miyamoto, M. Aida, F. Nagatsugi, Crosslinking Reactions of 4-Amino-6-oxo-2-vinylpyrimidine with Guanine Derivatives and Structural Analysis of the Adducts, Nucl.Acids Res. 43, 7717-7730 (2015)
3. N. Sato, G. Tsuji, Y. Sasaki, A. Usami, T. Moki, K. Onizuka, K. Yamada and F. Nagatsugi, A New Strategy for Site-Specific Alkylation of DNA using Oligonucleotides Containing an Abasic site and Alkylating Probes. Chem.Commun, 51, 14885-14888 (2015).
4. S.Kusano, T. Haruyama, S. Ishiyama, S. Hagihara and F. Nagatsugi, Development of Crosslinking Reactions to RNA Triggered by Oxidation, Chem. Commun, 50, 3951-3954 (2014).
5. Onizuka, K., Nagatsugi, F., Ito, Y. and Abe, H. Automatic Pseudorotaxane Formation Targeting on Nucleic Acids Using a Pair of Reactive Oligodeoxynucleotides. J.Am.Chem.Soc., 136, 7201-7204 (2014).

Contact Information

(Please delete "/" after "@" in a mail address.)
Fumi NAGATSUGI
(TEL +81-22-217-5633, Email: nagatugi@/tohoku.ac.jp)
Kazumitsu ONIZUKA
(TEL +81-22-217-5634, Email: kazumitsu.onizuka.d7@/tohoku.ac.jp)
Hidenori OKAMURA
(TEL +81-22-217-5634, Email: hidenori.okamura.b8@/tohoku.ac.jp)
Website: https://www2.tagen.tohoku.ac.jp/lab/nagatsugi/html/