in vivo

2007 Excellent Paper Award and
Excellent Poster of the Year
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The RCAI Award for Excellent Paper was established in 2004 with donations from Dr.
Masaru Taniguchi and Dr. Toshio Hirano. The annual award aims to recognize exceptional
publications by RCAI scientists. This year, five excellent papers were selected from 16
candidates for this prestigious award.
• Drs. Ruka Setoguchi and Ichiro Taniuchi, for their Science paper “Repression of the
Transcription Factor Th-POK by Runx Complexes in Cytotoxic T Cell Development”.
They studied cell fate decisions using CD4/CD8 lineage commitment in the thymus as a
model system and found that the Runx transcription factor complex actively suppresses
the expression of another transcription factor required for CD4 T cell development, thus
allowing for differentiation of cytotoxic T cells.
• Drs. Shuro Yoshida, Yoriko Saito and Fumihiko Ishikawa, for their paper published in
Nature Biotechnology “Chemotherapy-resistant Human AML Stem Cells Home to and Engraft
Within the Bone-marrow Endosteal Region”. They used a humanized mouse model
to identify and characterize the leukemic stem (LS) cells in acute myelogenous leukemia
and found that the quiescencent state of the LS cells may be a mechanism underlying
their resistance to cell cycle-dependent cytotoxic therapy, and validated the humanized
mouse as a potentially useful model for development of novel therapeutic strategies.
• Drs. Takashi Tanaka and Tsuneyasu Kaisho, for their work on “PDLIM2-mediated
termination of transcription factor NF-κB activation by intranuclear sequestration and
degradation of the p65 subunit” (Nature Immunology). In this paper, they identified a
novel nuclear ubiquitin ligase that terminates NF-κB activation through intranuclear sequestration
and subsequent degradation.
• Drs. Yoshihiro Baba and Tomohiro Kurosaki for their Nature Immunology paper “Essential
function for the calcium sensor STIM1 in mast cell activation and anaphylactic
responses”. They discovered that the calcium-binding endoplasmic reticulum protein
STIM1 is vital to mast cell function: it critically regulates FceRI Ca influx, activation of
the NF-κB and NFAT transcription factors, degranulation, and in vivo anaphylaxis responses.
• Drs. Hiroshi Watarai and Masaru Taniguchi, for their paper “PDC-TREM, a plasmacytoid
dendritic cell-specific receptor, is responsible for augmented production of type I
interferon” (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., USA). They discovered a novel TREM family receptor
expressed only on TLR activated plasmacytoid dendritic cells, which plays a crucial role
in Type I interferon production after TLR activation.
The award ceremony was held on May 9, 2008 at RCAI. The awardees described the
difficulties they had encountered and expressed appreciation for the support of their colleagues.
On September 3 rd , RCAI held two poster presentation sessions during its retreat meeting
in Chiba. Among eighty-six posters presented, thirteen posters were selected for a
“2007 Award for Excellent Poster” by vote of laboratory heads. Winning the award was not
only a happy surprise for the awardees, but also allowed each of them to introduce his/her
project to an audience of ~150 in a 10-minute English oral presentation held the next day.
“This year, we tried to select unpublished results for the award. I hope the young researchers
were stimulated and motivated for their research through this opportunity” the organizer, Dr.
Udono explained.
The awardees were:
Toshiyuki Fukada (Lab. for Cytokine Signaling) (01)
Kazuya Kawano (Lab. for Epithelial Immunobiology) (02)
Noriko Komatsu (Research Unit for Immune Homeostasis) (03)
Yasutaka Motomura (Lab. for Signal Network) (04)
Mari Ohmura-Hoshino (Lab. for Infectious Immunity) (05)
Rika Ouchida (Lab. for Immune Diversity) (06)
Yoriko Saito (Research Unit for Human Disease Model) (07)
Rumi Satoh (Lab. for Lymphocyte Development) (08)
Keiichiro Suzuki (Lab. for Mucosal Immunity) (09)
Takashi Tanaka (Lab. for Host Defense) (10)
Ichiro Taniuchi (Lab. for Transcriptional Regulation) (11)
Asuka Terashima & Hiroshi Watarai (Lab. for Immune Regulation) (12)
Masayuki Tsuji (Lab. for Mucosal Immunity) (13)
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