Takashi Nishina, PhD

Takashi Nishina, Ph.D.
Toho University
Department of Biochemistry
Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Twitter: @nishina_takashi

Takashi Nishina is an Assistant Professor in the laboratory of Prof. Hiroyasu Nakano at Toho University School of Medicine, Japan. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo, Japan, under the supervision of Prof. Junichiro Inoue. During his Ph.D. study, he studied how the constitutive activation of NF-kappaB occurs in pancreatic cancer cell lines. His postdoctoral study at Juntendo University, Japan, showed that Interleukin (IL)-11 is induced by reactive oxygen species and promotes tissue repair in the liver. Then Dr. Nishina was appointed at Toho University as an Assistant professor. His group generated IL-11 deficient mice and IL-11 reporter mice. He used these mice to characterize cancer-associated fibroblasts in colorectal cancer models and inflammatory fibroblasts in a colitis model. The findings from the mouse studies were also observed in human colorectal cancers. His research interests include the molecular mechanisms of IL-11 mediated tissue homeostasis and cancer development in mice and humans.