Yoshinaga Saeki, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Department of Neurological Surgery

Ph.D.: Osaka University
Postdoctoral Training: Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Contact Information
385B Wiseman Hall
400 W. 12th Avenue
Columbus, OH  43210
PHONE: (614) 292-3804
FAX: (614) 688-4882
E-MAIL: saeki.6@osu.edu

Link to NLM PubMed publications list for Yoshinaga Saeki (last 10 years)

Research Area:

• Gene- and cell-based therapy for neurological disorders
• Development and applications of viral vectors

Current Research:

My laboratory is developing therapeutic strategies for neurological disorders.  We are engaged in three major ongoing projects that employ multidisciplinary research techniques.

1. Developing and applying herpes simplex virus (HSV)-based amplicon vectors for gene therapy and neuroscience research; HSV amplicon vectors are plasmid-based, high-capacity vectors that have full HSV infection machinery.
• identifying and characterizing cellular and immunological mechanisms that regulate HSV amplicon-mediated transgene expression
• developing “indicator” HSV amplicon vectors to monitor various cellular activities
• genetic engineering of neuronal cells using “regulatable” HSV amplicon vectors
  
  
2. Development and applications of engineered, oncolytic HSV vectors for brain tumor therapy.
• identifying and characterizing cellular and immunological mechanisms that interfere with oncolytic activities of replication-conditional HSV vectors
• developing novel oncolytic virotherapies that target brain tumor stem cells
  
  
3. Studying the roles of three related orphan G protein-coupled receptors, GPR3, GPR6, and GPR12, in the mammalian central nervous system
• defining the functions of GPR3, GPR6, and GPR12 using knockout mice and cultured primary neurons
• defining the roles of GPR3, GPR6, and GPR12 in neurological disorders, such as spinal cord injury and stroke

Techniques:

• Molecular biology:  cloning of genes; construction of viral vectors; cloning and engineering viral genomes; BAC engineering; ChIP-PCR; pulsed field-gel electrophoresis (PFGE); GFP and epitope tagging; and purification of His-tagged proteins.
• Cell Biology:  transfection of cultured cells; RNAi; immunocytochemistry; FACS analysis; immunoblotting; immunoprecipitation; and primary neural cultures.
• Imaging: confocal microscopic imaging; time-lapse fluorescent microscopic imaging; and in vivo bioluminescence imaging.
• Transgenic mice and small animal surgery: in vivo gene transfer.