Cutting edge Seminar
Speaker: Hiroshi Matsumoto (Department of Legal Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine / Faculty of Medicine)
Title: Japanese Dream: a new challenge from the world after death
Date&Time: 6 Jul. (Wed.) 2016, 12:00- 13:00
Venue: Conference Room(1F), IMEG
Abstract:
Research in the life sciences has rapidly advanced since the middle of the 20th century, as demonstrated by, for example, the discovery of DNA by Watson and Crick1). Developments in biomedical research include cloning, DNA fingerprinting, mRNA, PCR, non-coding RNA, iPS cells, and next–generation sequencing (NGS). DNA fingerprinting2) has been used to identify deceased bodies, and the number of short tandem repeats (STR) has also been used for identification. Furthermore, in the near future, whole-genome analysis using NGS will be capable of establishing a complete match for purposes of identification. NGS has revealed the aetiology of numerous diseases. As a result, genome mutations can be used to predict the development of diseases and are an important factor in medicine. On the other hand, gene mutations such as those associated with long QT syndrome Brugada syndrome may lead to early death3). However, verifying this interpretation is very difficult because no studies have compared the frequency of mutations between healthy and deceased people.
Do you know the typical cause of death? Most people would say that irreversible cardiac arrest causes death. However, as a biomedical researcher or a medical doctor, what would you say is the major cause of death? We understand programmed and other types of cell death, but have you witnessed cell death in cell culture? Biomedical researchers are happy when <1% of cells die in culture. In Japan, it is estimated that sudden cardiac death (SCD) occurs in 70,000 to 100,000 individuals each year. The incidence of SCD is approximately 560 to 1,120 per 100,000 people, i.e. 0.56–1.12%. When you perform cell culture, the cloned cells are cultured in the same conditions. Why, then, do some of them die? Any failure in your experiment is thus a form of “death research” and can be used to understand, and thereafter prevent, the development of SCD or other diseases. In this seminar, I will discuss death research within the life sciences using existing evidence and will share my hopes for the future of this research.
References
1) Watson JD, Crick FHC. Molecular structure of deoxypentose Nucleic Acid. Nature 171: 737-8, 1953.
2) Jeffreys, A.J., Wilson, V. & Thein, S.L. Hypervariable ‘minisatellite’ regions in human DNA. Nature, 314, 67-73, 1985.
3) Bagnall et al. A Prospective Study of Sudden Cardiac Death among Children and Young Adults. N Engl J Med 2016; 374:2441-2452June 23, 2016DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1510687.
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