A research group led by Associate Professor Naoya Sawamura, researcher of the Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation, Professor Toru Asahi from the Faculty of Science and Engineering (Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience, School of Advanced Science and Engineering), 1st year doctoral student Kosuke Kataoka (Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience), and masters degree student China Nakamura (Department of Life Science and Medical Bioscience) discovered that a cereblon (CRBN), a causative gene for a mild type of autosomal recessive nonsyndromic intellectual disability, protects the cell from various extracellular stresses, including oxidative stress. There are hopes for creating drugs effective for autosomal recessive nonsyndromic intellectual disability based on this research.
The results were obtained by the Center of Innovation Program, which is supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency. A report of this research was published in Nature Publish Group’s online scientific magazine “Scientific Reports” on July 15.
The publication on the Scientific Reports can be found here: Mitochondrial cereblon functions as a Lon-type protease
