Accomplishments

Publication

Tomohiko Akiyama, Toshiya Nakahara, Saeko Sato, Kei-Ichiro Ishiguro, Masashi Yukawa, Miu Yamamoto, Hidehisa Takahashi, Minoru S H Ko

Functional redundancy between UTY and UTX in regulating the localization of transcription factors involved in pluripotency.

Development. 2026, May 1;153(9):dev205328.

So Maezawa, Masashi Yukawa, Akihiko Sakashita, Artem Barski, Satoshi H Namekawa.

Site-specific DNA demethylation during spermatogenesis presets the sites of nucleosome retention in mouse sperm.

eLife. 2025 Apr 19, Reviewed Preprint

Jinyue Bai, Peiyong Jiang, Lu Ji, W K Jacky Lam, Qing Zhou, Mary-Jane L Ma, Spencer C Ding, Saravanan Ramakrishnan, Chun Wai Wan, Tongxin Claire Yang, Masashi Yukawa, Rebecca W Y Chan, Rong Qiao, Stephanie C Y Yu, L Y Lois Choy, Yuwei Shi, Zilong Wang, Tommy H C Tam, Man Fai Law, Raymond S M Wong, John Wong, Stephen Lam Chan, Grace L H Wong, Vincent W S Wong, K C Allen Chan, Y M Dennis Lo.

Histone modifications of circulating nucleosomes are associated with changes in cell-free DNA fragmentation patterns

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Oct 15;121(42):e2404058121.

T Akiyama, K Ishiguro, N Chikazawa, SH Ko, M Yukawa, MH Ko.

ZSCAN4-binding motif—TGCACAC is conserved and enriched in CA/TG microsatellites in both mouse and human genomes.

DNA Research. Volume 31, Issue 1 (2024).

So Maezawa, Masashi Yukawa, Kazuteru Hasegawa, Ryo Sugiyama, Mengwen Hu, Akihiko Sakashita, Miguel Vidal, Haruhiko Koseki, Artem Barski, Tony DeFalco, and Satoshi H. Namekawa.
PRC1 suppresses a female gene regulatory network to ensure testicular differentiation.
Cell Death & Differentiation. Aug 4;14(8):501. (2023).

Joseph A. Wayman, Alyssa Thomas, Anthony Bejjani, Alexander Katko, Maha Almanan, Alzbeta Godarova, Svetlana Korinfskaya, Tareian A. Cazares, Masashi Yukawa, Leah C. Kottyan, Artem Barski, Claire A. Chougnet, David A. Hildeman, Emily R. Miraldi.
An atlas of gene regulatory networks for T memory cells in youth and old age.
bioRxiv. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.03.07.531590

Sin ST, Deng J, Ji L, Yukawa M, Chan RW, Volpi S, Vaglio A, Fenaroli P, Bocca P, Cheng SH, Wong DK, Lui KO, Jiang P, Chan KCA, Chiu RW, Lo YMD.
Effects of nucleases on cell-free extrachromosomal circular DNA.
JCI Insight. 22;7(8):e156070. (2022).

Akihiko, Sakashita; So, Maezawa; Kazuki, Takahashi; Kris G., Alavattam; Masashi, Yukawa; Yueh-Chiang, Hu; Shohei, Kojima; Nicholas F., Parrish; Artem, Barski; Mihaela, Pavlicev; Satoshi H., Namekawa.
Endogenous retroviruses drive species-specific germline transcriptomes in mammals.
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 27: 967-977. (2020).

So, Maezawa; Akihiko, Sakashita; Masashi, Yukawa; Xiaoting, Chen; Kazuki, Takahashi; Kris G., Alavattam; Ippo, Nakata; Matthew T., Weirauch; Artem, Barski; Satoshi H., Namekawa.
Super-enhancer switching drives a burst in gene expression at the mitosis-to-meiosis transition.
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 27: 978-988. (2020).

Masashi Yukawa, Sajjeev Jagannathan, Sushmitha Vallabh, Andrey V. Kartashov, Xiaoting Chen, Matthew T. Weirauch, Artem Barski.
AP-1 activity induced by co-stimulation is required for chromatin opening during T cell activation.
Journal of Experimental Medicine. vol. 217 no. 1. (2020).
—This paper was selected by preLights. (https://prelights.biologists.com/highlights/co-stimulation-induced-ap-1-activity-is-required-for-chromatin-opening-during-t-cell-activation/)
—This paper was also highlighted as a press release in Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Newsroom (https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/news/release/2019/immune-diseases).
—This paper has been recommended in F1000prime as a significant paper. (https://f1000.com/prime/736814040?subscriptioncode=8391a0a8-068e-43ed-89be-f675024d6aac&utm_medium=email&utm_source=prime_ypp)
—This paper was selected as “best paper award 2022” in United Japanese researchers Around the world.

So Maezawa, Kazuteru Hasegawa, Masashi Yukawa, Naoki Kubo, Akihiko Sakashita, Kris G. Alavattam, Ho-Su Sin, Andrey V. Kartashov, Hiroyuki Sasaki, Artem Barski, and Satoshi H. Namekawa.
Polycomb protein SCML2 facilitates H3K27me3 to establish bivalent 3 domains in the male germline.
PNAS. 8;115(19):4957-4962. (2018).

John B. Harley, Xiaoting Chen, Mario Pujato, Daniel Miller, Avery Maddox, Carmy Forney, Albert F. Magnusen, Arthur Lynch, Kashish Chetal, Masashi Yukawa, Artem Barski, Nathan Salomonis, Kenneth M. Kaufman, Leah C. Kottyan, Matthew T. Weirauch.
Transcription factors operate across disease loci with EBNA2 implicated in autoimmunity.
Nature Genetics. 50(5):699-707. (2018).

So Maezawa, Masashi Yukawa, Kris G. Alavattam, Artem Barski, and Satoshi H. Namekawa.
Dynamic reorganization of open chromatin underlies diverse transcriptomes during spermatogenesis. Nucleic Acids Research. 46(2):593-608. (2018).

Maezawa S, Hasegawa K, Yukawa M, Sakashita A, Alavattam K, Andreassen P, Vidal M, Koseki H, Barski A, and Namekawa SH.
Polycomb directs timely activation of germline genes in spermatogenesis.
Genes & Development. 31(16):1693-1703. (2017).

Stevens ML, Chaturvedi P, Rankin SA, Macdonald M, Jagannathan S, Yukawa M, Barski A, and Zorn AM.
Genomic integration of Wnt/β-catenin and BMP/Smad1 signaling coordinates foregut and hindgut transcriptional program.
Development. 144(7):1283-1295. (2017).

Rochman Y, Yukawa M, Kartashov V. A, and Barski A.
Functional characterization of human T cell hyporesponsiveness induced by CTLA4-Ig.
PLoS One.10(4): e0122198. (2015).

Yukawa M, Akiyama T, Franke V, Mise N, Isagawa T, Suzuki Y, Suzuki G. M, Vlahovicek K, Abe K, Aburatani K, Aoki F.
Genome-Wide Analysis of the Chromatin Composition of Histone H2A and H3 Variants in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells.
PLoS One. 9(3): e92689. (2014).

Nashun B, Yukawa M, Liu H, Akiyama T, Aoki F.
Changes in the nuclear deposition of histone H2A variants during pre-implantation development in mice.
Development 137:3785-94. (2010).

Yukawa M, Oda S, Mitani H, Nagata M, Aoki F.
Deficiency in the response to DNA double-strand breaks in mouse early preimplantation embryos.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun 358: 578-584. (2007).

Morita M, Kozuka N, Itofusa R, Yukawa M, and Kudo Y.
Autocrine activation of EGF receptor promotes oscillation of glutamate-induced calcium increase in astrocytes cultured in rat cerebral cortex.
Journal of Neurochemistry 95: 871-879. (2005).

Grant (Thank you)

・Competitive research funding (PI-led)

1. 公益財団法人 持田記念医学薬学振興財団「2023年度持田記念研究助成」

2. 公益財団法人 鈴木謙三記念医科学応用研究財団「令和5年度調査研究助成」

3. 公益財団法人 天野工業技術研究所「2023年度研究助成金」

4. 公益財団法人 中部電気利用基礎研究振興財団「令和5年度研究助成」

5. 公益財団法人 大和証券財団「第51回（2023年度）調査研究助成」

6. 公益財団法人 武田科学振興財団「2024年度 医学系研究助成（基礎）」

7. アステラス病態代謝研究会「2024年度研究助成金」

8. 公益財団法人 高橋産業経済研究財団「令和7年度研究助成」

9. 科学研究費助成事業（科研費）「令和7年度基盤研究C」