Detection and preliminary evaluation of circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of patients with eight types of cancer using a telomerase-specific adenovirus.

We developed a detection method for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) using the telomerase-specific adenovirus OBP-401. This recombinant virus has a telomerase promoter at the 5'-end of the viral genome and GFP at the 3'-end. To date, CTC enumeration using OBP-401 has shown prognostic impact for gastric and small cell lung cancer patients.

Maternal-zygotic medaka mutants for fgfr1 reveal its essential role in the migration of the axial mesoderm but not the lateral mesoderm.

The medaka fish (Oryzias latipes) is an emerging model organism for which a variety of unique developmental mutants have now been generated. Our recent mutagenesis screening of the medaka identified headfish (hdf), a null mutant for fgf receptor 1 (fgfr1), which fails to develop structures in the trunk and tail. Despite its crucial role in early development, the functions of Fgfr1-mediated signaling have not yet been well characterized due to the complexity of the underlying ligand-receptor interactions.