Professor Noriyuki Nishida

Speciality / Research theme / Keywords

Virology(Prion)

Supervision

Masters Programme

Qualifications

MD.PhD.

Personal/work Web page addresses

http://www.med.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/mmi/cmb/index_e.html

Background

I was born in Fukuoka, Japan 1965, and studied medicine at Ryukyu University School of Medicine and finished Postgraduate course in Nagasaki University. Since 1995, I have studied about the most mysterious infectious agent, prion, in Japan, France, and US. From 2009, I am leading my prion research team as a professor in Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

Teaching

Molecular medicine about prion diseases

Research

Our studies focus on drug-discovery, developing a new diagnostic method for prion diseases, and analysis of host-pathogen relationship.
Recently, we have developed a new in vitro amplifying method of PrPSc (real-time Quaking Induce Conversion: RT-QuIC). We applied this amplification technique to detect small amounts of PrPSc in patient’s samples and established as a diagnostic test of human prion diseases.

The country/countries where you work currently

Japan

Five MOST IMPORTANT/INTERESTING recent publications

Hermann P, Appleby B, Brandel JP, Caughey B, Collins S, Geschwind MD, Green A, Haïk S, Kovacs GG, Ladogana A, Llorens F, Mead S, Nishida N, Pal S, Parchi P, Pocchiari M, Satoh K, Zanusso G, Zerr I. Biomarkers and diagnostic guidelines for sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The Lancet Neurology. 2021;20(3):235-246.
Nakagaki T, Nishida N, Satoh K. Development of α-Synuclein Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion as a Diagnostic Method for α-Synucleinopathies. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.2021;13:703984.
Dong TT, Akagi A, Nonaka T, Nakagaki T, Mihara B, Takao M, Iwasaki Y, Nishida N, Satoh K. Formalin RT-QuIC assay detects prion-seeding activity in formalin-fixed brain samples from sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients. Neurobiology of Disease. 2021; 159:105504.
Tange H, Ishibashi D, Nakagaki T, Taguchi Y, Kamatari YO, Ozawa H, Nishida N. Liquid-liquid phase separation of full-length prion protein initiates conformational conversion in vitro. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2021; 296:100367.
Nakagaki T, Ishibashi D, Mori T, Miyazaki Y, Takatsuki H, Tange H, Taguchi Y, Satoh K, Atarashi R, Nishida N. Administration of FK506 from Late Stage of Disease Prolongs Survival of Human Prion-Inoculated Mice. Neurotherapeutics. 2020; 17(4):1850-1860.

Message

I specialize in prion disease, a 100% fatal infectious disease, which is said to be the most miserable disease for humankind. Prion encompasses various aspects including infectious protein, pathogens without genes, contagious dementia, amyloidosis, and zoonosis, which require cross-sectoral research approaches. The development of BSE relates to the problems of food safety, and many people may still remember this disease causing international issues in terms of import control. In the lectures, I plan to examine the meaning of the existence of “infectious protein” in pathogenic microorganisms through discussion, while learning the history of prion discovery and identification of the pathogen.

Faculty