The UK - Japan Network

Creating anti-senescence cell fate by engineering the chromatin landscape

At the end of 2024, a new exciting collaboration was formalised between research groups in the UK and Japan, centred on the Narita and Markowetz groups at CRUK CI in the UK and the Ohkawa and Kimura groups in Japan, building on pre-existing collaborative efforts. This link is supported by a joint funding opportunity provided by the UKRI-MRC and AMED-ASPIRE funding bodies in the UK and Japan, respectively.

This page will contain updates on the ongoing events part of this collaboration.

10 July 2026: Summer students programme at the CRUK CI exchanging research experience including work part of the UK-Japan collaborative network

3 June 2026: Aya Kimoto (Kimura Lab) visited the Narita Lab and worked closely with Dr Tetsuya Handa (Narita Lab) to conduct joint experiments and exchange technical expertise, which will contribute to her doctoral project.

4 March 2026: The third meeting at the CRUK Cambridge Institute

Presenters:

Prof. Hiroshi Kimura
Prof. Yasuyuki Ohkawa

Dr. Takeru Fujii
Daiki Maejima
Haoqun Zhan

Daiki and Takeru visited the Narita Lab and conducted joint research projects with members of the Narita Lab on the 3D loop structure during muscle regeneration and perturbation of chromatin structure at specific loci during senescence.