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Personal History
1992-1996: B.S.,Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan)1996-1998: M.S., Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan)
1998-2001: Ph.D., Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan)
Research Interests
Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli or STEC causes bloody diarrhea, kidney failure known as Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), as well as neuronal impairment. About 30% of HUS patients develop neuronal disabilities, including seizures and/or changes in consciousness as coma. The mortality rate of central nervous system (CNS) impaired patients is about 3-fold higher than HUS alone. Also, CNS manifestations often associate with severe sequelae. Shiga toxin (Stx) is thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis. However, the mechanism of Shiga toxin to impair CNS is not yet clear. My research focus is to identify how Stx reaches a neuron, and how the neuron will be altered by the toxin, which in turn causes CNS impairement.Publications
Selected PublicationsObata F, Tohyama K, Bonev A, Kolling G, Keepers T, Gross L, Nelson M, Sato S and Obrig T. (2008) Shiga toxin 2 affects the central nervoussystem through receptor Gb3 localized to neurons. J infect. Dis.(in press). Note: Front cover display of this issue of J.I.D. will feature confocal microscopy data from this study.
Kolling GL, Obata F, Gross LK and Obrig TG. (2008) Immunohistologic techniques for detecting the glycolipid Gb3 in the mouse kidney and nervous system. Histochem Cell Biol 130(1):157-64 (GLK and FO contributed equally to this work)
Fujii J, Wood K, Matsuda F, Carneiro-Filho BA, Schlegel KH, Yutsudo T, Binnington-Boyd B, Lingwood CA, Obata F, Kim KS, Yoshida S and Obrig T. (2008) Shiga toxin 2 causes apoptosis in human brain microvascular endothelial cells via C/EBP Homologous Protein. Infect Immun 76(8):3679-89
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