Laboratory of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University
Molecular biology of influenza viruses and elucidation of the mechanisms of inter-host transmission.
Topic 1
The receptor for the influenza virus is a glycan containing sialic acid. The host specificity of the influenza virus is largely determined by the binding specificity of the virus to the glycan and the structure of the glycan distributed in target cells. Our laboratory is conducting research focusing on the structural diversity of sialic acid glycans, aiming to re-examine the host specificity of the influenza virus.
Recent achievements on this topic:
Harada et al., Virology, 2025 ; Kobayashi et al., Virus Res, 2022
Topic 2
Influenza viruses are known to initiate infection by utilizing the sugar chains of host cells. In addition to host-virus interactions mediated by sugar chains, our laboratory is conducting unique research in "infectious disease glycobiology" to deepen our comprehensive understanding of the role of sugar chains in infectious diseases.
Recent achievements on this topic:
Kobayashi et al., J Virol, 2025 ; Hiono et al., J Proteome Res, 2024
To a different research topic
