RESEARCH

Skeletal tissue is composed of multiple cell-types including bone-forming osteoblasts, bone-resorption osteoclasts, and joint-maintaining chondrocytes. To establish the strategy for bone regeneration and treatments of skeletal disorders, understanding the mechanisms underlying cell-fate specification and differentiation of skeletal cell-types is necessary. We aim at identifying gene regulatory networks in skeletal development and skeletal repair through epigenetics, gene regulatory analysis and single-cell analysis with next-generation sequencing. We also try to understand cell-cell interaction networks among multiple cell-types in bone tissues by focusing signaling network analysis. Recently, we further explore human skeletal development and species comparison analysis by utilizing a modeling of human skeletal development with pluripotent stem cells and clinical bone samples. Through these analyses, we identify key mechanisms of human skeletal development and repair. We further develop regenerative methods to manipulate the mechanisms by integrating with biomaterials.