Keisuke Ito, M.D., Ph.D.

Our research interests have focused on biomedical research aiming toward the development of stem cell therapies. In keeping with this commitment, our team’s long-term research goals are to define the critical regulatory pathways in the controlled equilibrium of stem cells, findings which will be relevant to therapy. Various molecular metabolisms have recently come into focus as novel regulatory elements of stem cell maintenance. The broad objective of the current project is to illuminate through both genetic and pharmacological approaches the role of one such potential regulatory element, cellular metabolism, in the cell fate decisions of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Our studies are designed to uncover a function for metabolism in the control of hematopoietic asymmetric division and maintenance, which will in turn lead to novel therapeutic approaches to fine-tuning the function of normal hematopoietic stem cells, and possibly leukemia and other tissue stem cells.

Other studies in the laboratory are investigating the pathogenesis of an incurable stem cell disorder, myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Our lab has devised a plan to identify key mechanisms of MDS pathogenesis for the development of targeted therapies to combat the disease more effectively.