Research Interests
Dr. Iwakuma's primary research focuses on the field of Cancer Research, especially modeling human cancers in mice. dissecting protein function in tumor suppressor p53 pathway, and applying disease models to translational research, to ultimately cure cancer.
Selected Publications:
1. Iwakuma T, Lozano G. Crippling p53 activities via knockin mutations in mouse models. Oncogene 2007,
In press.
2. Iwakuma T, Lozano G, Flores ER. Li-Fraumeni Syndrome: a p53 Family Affair. Cell Cycle 2005, 4 (7): 41 - 43.
3. Iwakuma T*, Lang GA*, Suh A-Y, Liu G, Rao VA, Parant JM, Valentin-Vega YA, Terzian T, Caldwell LC, Strong LC, El-Naggar AK, Lozano G. Gain of Function of a p53 hot spot mutation in a mouse model of Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Cell 2004, 119 (6): 861-872. *These two authors contributed equally to this study.
4. Bruins W., Zwart E., Attardi LD, Iwakuma T, Hoogervorst EM, Beems RB, Miranda B, van Oostrom CTM, van den Berg J, van den Aardweg G, Lozano G, van Steeg H, Jacks T, de Vries A. Increased sensitivity to UV radiation in mice with a p53 point mutation at Ser389. Mol. Cell. Biol. 2004, 24 (20): 8884-8894.
5. Iwakuma T, Parant JM, Fasulo Jr M, Zwart E, Jacks T, de Vries A, Lozano G. Mutation at p53 serine 389 does not rescue the embryonic lethality in mdm2 or mdm4 null mice. Oncogene 2004, 23 (46): 7644-7650.
6. Iwakuma T, Lozano G. Mdm2, an Introduction. Mol. Cancer Res. 2003, 1 (14): 993-1000.
7. Tsuzuki T, Egashira A, Igarashi H, Iwakuma T, Nakatsuru Y, Tominaga Y, Kawate H, Nakao K, Nakamura K, Ide F, Kura S, Nakabeppu Y, Katsuki M, Ishikawa T, Sekiguchi M. Spontaneous tumorigenesis in mice defective in the MTH1 gene encoding 8-oxo-dGTPase. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2001, 98 (20): 11456-11461.
8. Iwakuma T, Cui Y., Chang L-Ji. Self-Inactivating lentiviral vectors with U3 and U5 modifications. Virology 1999, 261 (1): 120-132.
9. Cui Y, Iwakuma T, Chang L-Ji. Contributions of viral splice sites and cis-regulatory elements to lentivirus vector function. J Virol. 1999, 73 (7): 6171-6176.
10. Chang L-J, Urlacher V, Iwakuma T, Cui Y, Zucali J. Efficacy and safety analyses of a recombinant human immunodeficiency virus type 1 derived vector system. Gene Therapy 1999, 6 (5): 715-728.
11. Iwakuma T, Sakumi K, Nakatsuru Y, Kawate H, Igarashi H, Shiraishi A, Tsuzuki T, Ishikawa T, Sekiguchi M. High incidence of nitrosamine-induced tumorigenesis in mice lacking DNA repair methyltransferase. Carcinogenesis 1997, 18 (8): 1631-1635.
12. Tanaka K, Iwakuma T, Harimaya K, Sato H, Iwamoto Y. EWS-Fli1 antisense oligodeoxynucleotide inhibits proliferation of human Ewing's sarcoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumor cells. J. Clin. Invest. 1997, 99 (2): 239-247.
13. Iwakuma T, Shiraishi A, Fukuhara M, Kawate H, Sekiguchi M. Organization and expression of the mouse gene for DNA repair methyltransferase. DNA Cell. Biol. 1996, 15 (10): 863-872.
14. Tsuzuki T, Sakumi K, Shiraishi A, Kawate H, Igarashi H, Iwakuma T, Tominaga Y, Zhang S, Shimizu S, Ishikawa T, Sekiguchi M. Targeted disruption of the DNA repair methyltransferase gene renders mice hypersensitive to alkylating agent. Carcinogenesis 1996, 17 (6): 1215-1220.
Contact info: tiwaku@lsuhsc.edu