Staff and specialities

Professor: Akira ANDOH
Associate Professor:  Katsuyuki KITOH (Division of Hematology)
Associate Professor:  Mitsushige SUGIMOTO (Division of Endoscopy)
Senior Assistant Professor:  Shigeki BAMBA (Division of Clinical Nutrition)
Associate Professor:  Osamu INATOMI
Senior Assistant Professor:  Hitoshi MINAMIGUCHI (Divison of Blood Transfusion)
Assistant Professor:  Ayano SONODA
Assistant Professor:  Rie OSAKI
Assistant Professor:  Kenichiro TAKAHASHI
Assistant Professor:  Takehide FUJIMOTO
Assistant Professor:  Masaki IWASA
Assistant Professor:  Masashi OHNO
Assistant Professor:  Masaki MURATA

Professor: Tomoyuki TSUJIKAWA (Department of Comprehensive Internal Medicine)
Professor: Masaya SASAKI (Division of Clinical Nutrition, Fundamental Nursing)

Outline of the department

The clinical specialties of our department relate to the medical care of patients with digestive and hematological diseases. These include latest diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), gastrointestinal and hepato-biliary-pancreatic diseases, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantations (allo-BMT, auto-BMT and PBSCT) for hematological diseases.

Research in the Department of Gastroenterology covers the clinical, investigative and educational fields of Gastroenterology, and we conduct both clinical and basic research based on cutting-edge medical science, currently focusing on the following projects.

Clinical research
1) Latest therapeutics of IBD using biologics, cytapheresis, immunomodulatory 
   agents, and nutritional assessment.
2) Diagnostic and interventional approach for gastrointestinal malignancy include 
   endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD), endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), 
   endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and radiofrequency 
   ablation (RFA). 

Basic research
1) Identifying regulatory mechanisms of intestinal absorption and intestinal 
   epithelial cell growth induced by dietary components as intraluminal substrates.
2) Establishing animal models of IBD to analyze the possible roles played by 
   cytokines and chemical mediators in the pathogenesis of IBD, and proposing 
   development of novel therapeutic agents.
3) Elucidating the pathogenic role of periacinal myofibroblasts in the 
   progression of pancreatic fibrosis.

Department of Hematology provides expert primary and consultative care for patients with benign and malignant blood-related disorders. Clinical disorders of particular interest include:  acute leukemias, malignant lymphomas, multiple myelomas, bone marrow failure disorders (aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndromes), myeloproliferative neoplasms (polycythemia vera, essential thrombocytosis, chronic myeloid leukemia, myelofibrosis), and a variety of other benign and malignant disorders. More than 200 adult stem cell transplant procedures are performed at our program, autologous peripheral stem cell transplants for lymphomas and myelomas, and allogeneic transplantations for acute leukemias. Our program is accredited by Japan Marrow Donor Program.
Research in this department is principally concerned with gastroenterology and hematology, and currently focuses on 

1) Elucidating regulatory functions of bone marrow derived stroma cells on 
   megakaryopotesis and clonal growth of leukemic cells.

2) Isolation and characterization of hematopoietic stem cells in order to develop 
   an in vitro expansion system for these cells.

3) Development of tumor specific molecular target drugs.

4) Promotion of BCR-ABL-mediated myeloid cell proliferation, differentiation and 
   exhaustion of CML stem cells by C/EBPβ transcription factor.