Tsuyoshi Sakai, PhD
Assistant Professor
Center for Biomedical Research
Phone: 903-877-7224
Dr. Sakai has published peer reviewed publications twenty times starting in 1996, including publications in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, PNAS, JCB and JBC. He has given twenty-two presentations in four different countries (USA, Japan, China, and Austria) to scientific organizations starting in 1995. He has been working as an assistant professor for research at Texas Health Science Center at Tyler since 2019.
Education and Training
BA (Bioengineering/Japan, Soka Univ.) 1994
MD (Bioengineering/Japan, Soka Univ.) 1996
PHD (Physiology/Japan, Soka Univ.): Function of transcription factor. 2003
Courses Taught Mutagenesis, Gene editing, Protein chemistry, Protein-protein interactions, FRAP assay and Cell migration assay in Biotechnology Master’s Program.
Research Interests For Dr. Sakai research has been focused on biochemical and molecular characterization of diseases-linked motor proteins. Motor proteins represent the fundamental source of motive force in living systems such as muscle contraction, cell division, intracellular trafficking, cell locomotion, endocytosis, phagocytosis, epithelial sheet closure in development, wound healing, neuronal path finding, immune cell function, cell invasion, metastasis of cancer cells and vesicle transport. Recent progress of the research has raised a hypothesis that each motor protein has unique motor characteristics, specific docking partners and has a specific cellular function. Yet the physiological function and regulation of motor proteins are far from understood. He has recently been collaborating with Dr. Idell and Dr. Tucker’ s group at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, and studying the role of motor protein and transcription factor-related regulation mechanism that is associated with progress of lung fibrosis. Publication Highlights Publication Highlights (Of 182 cited on PubMed): 1. Sakai T, Choo YY, Sato O, Ikebe R, Jeffers A, Idell S, Tucker T, Ikebe M.Fibronectin-Containing Vesicles and Facilitates FN1 Secretion from Human Pleural Mesothelial Cells. Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Apr 27;23(9):4823. doi: 10.3390/ijms23094823. PMID: 35563212.
2. Sato O, Sakai T, Choo YY, Ikebe R, Watanabe TM, Ikebe M. Mitochondria-associated myosin 19 processively transports mitochondria on actin tracks in living cells. J Biol Chem. 2022 Mar 31;298(5):101883. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.101883. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35367209.
3. Choo YY, Sakai T, Komatsu S, Ikebe R, Jeffers A, Singh KP, Idell S, Tucker TA, Ikebe M. Calponin 1 contributes to myofibroblast differentiation of human pleural mesothelial cells. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2022 Mar 1;322(3):L348-L364. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00289.2021. Epub 2022 Jan 12. PMID: 35018804.
MD (Bioengineering/Japan, Soka Univ.) 1996
PHD (Physiology/Japan, Soka Univ.): Function of transcription factor. 2003
Courses Taught Mutagenesis, Gene editing, Protein chemistry, Protein-protein interactions, FRAP assay and Cell migration assay in Biotechnology Master’s Program.
Research Interests For Dr. Sakai research has been focused on biochemical and molecular characterization of diseases-linked motor proteins. Motor proteins represent the fundamental source of motive force in living systems such as muscle contraction, cell division, intracellular trafficking, cell locomotion, endocytosis, phagocytosis, epithelial sheet closure in development, wound healing, neuronal path finding, immune cell function, cell invasion, metastasis of cancer cells and vesicle transport. Recent progress of the research has raised a hypothesis that each motor protein has unique motor characteristics, specific docking partners and has a specific cellular function. Yet the physiological function and regulation of motor proteins are far from understood. He has recently been collaborating with Dr. Idell and Dr. Tucker’ s group at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, and studying the role of motor protein and transcription factor-related regulation mechanism that is associated with progress of lung fibrosis. Publication Highlights Publication Highlights (Of 182 cited on PubMed): 1. Sakai T, Choo YY, Sato O, Ikebe R, Jeffers A, Idell S, Tucker T, Ikebe M.Fibronectin-Containing Vesicles and Facilitates FN1 Secretion from Human Pleural Mesothelial Cells. Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Apr 27;23(9):4823. doi: 10.3390/ijms23094823. PMID: 35563212.
2. Sato O, Sakai T, Choo YY, Ikebe R, Watanabe TM, Ikebe M. Mitochondria-associated myosin 19 processively transports mitochondria on actin tracks in living cells. J Biol Chem. 2022 Mar 31;298(5):101883. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.101883. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35367209.
3. Choo YY, Sakai T, Komatsu S, Ikebe R, Jeffers A, Singh KP, Idell S, Tucker TA, Ikebe M. Calponin 1 contributes to myofibroblast differentiation of human pleural mesothelial cells. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2022 Mar 1;322(3):L348-L364. doi: 10.1152/ajplung.00289.2021. Epub 2022 Jan 12. PMID: 35018804.