Dr Kosuke Yusa

Kosuke develops and applies novel genome engineering techniques in mouse and human embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to screen for disease-causing variations in genes and to create new cell-based healthcare treatments.

Kosuke graduated from Osaka University in 1999 with a BSc in Bioengineering and completed an MSc in Agricultural science in 2001 at the University of Tokyo. In 2005, he obtained his PhD from Osaka University under the supervision of Professor Junji Takeda and received the 'Yamamura prize' (Graduate Student of the Year). As part of his PhD, Kosuke established a novel forward genetic screening method in mouse ES cells that uses the hyper-recombination phenotype of Bloom helicase-deficient cells.

After his PhD, he was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the Japan Society of Promotion of Science and joined Professor Allan Bradley's team at the Sanger Institute in 2007. He has developed the hyperactive piggyBac 'jumping gene' (DNA transporter system) and used it to create a novel platform of iPS cell reprogramming. By combining this system with zinc finger nuclease technology, he has achieved highly precise genetic correction of disease-causing mutations in human iPS cells, opening the way to new clinical treatments.

In October 2012, Kosuke was appointed as a member of the Sanger Institute Faculty in the newly developed scientific programme, Cellular Genetics

Selected Publications

• Mobilization of giant piggyBac transposons in the mouse genome.

  Li MA, Turner DJ, Ning Z, Yusa K, Liang Q, Eckert S, Rad L, Fitzgerald TW, Craig NL and Bradley A

  Nucleic acids research 2011;39;22;e148

  PUBMED: 21948799; PMC: 3239208; DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkr764

• Targeted gene correction of α1-antitrypsin deficiency in induced pluripotent stem cells.

  Yusa K, Rashid ST, Strick-Marchand H, Varela I, Liu PQ, Paschon DE, Miranda E, Ordóñez A, Hannan NR, Rouhani FJ, Darche S, Alexander G, Marciniak SJ, Fusaki N, Hasegawa M, Holmes MC, Di Santo JP, Lomas DA, Bradley A and Vallier L

  Nature 2011;478;7369;391-4

  PUBMED: 21993621; PMC: 3198846; DOI: 10.1038/nature10424

• Interhomolog recombination and loss of heterozygosity in wild-type and Bloom syndrome helicase (BLM)-deficient mammalian cells.

  LaRocque JR, Stark JM, Oh J, Bojilova E, Yusa K, Horie K, Takeda J and Jasin M

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2011;108;29;11971-6

  PUBMED: 21730139; PMC: 3141969; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1104421108

• A hyperactive piggyBac transposase for mammalian applications.

  Yusa K, Zhou L, Li MA, Bradley A and Craig NL

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2011;108;4;1531-6

  PUBMED: 21205896; PMC: 3029773; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1008322108

• PiggyBac transposon mutagenesis: a tool for cancer gene discovery in mice.

  Rad R, Rad L, Wang W, Cadinanos J, Vassiliou G, Rice S, Campos LS, Yusa K, Banerjee R, Li MA, de la Rosa J, Strong A, Lu D, Ellis P, Conte N, Yang FT, Liu P and Bradley A

  Science (New York, N.Y.) 2010;330;6007;1104-7

  PUBMED: 20947725; DOI: 10.1126/science.1193004

• Generation of transgene-free induced pluripotent mouse stem cells by the piggyBac transposon.

  Yusa K, Rad R, Takeda J and Bradley A

  Nature methods 2009;6;5;363-9

  PUBMED: 19337237; PMC: 2677165; DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1323

• Region-specific saturation germline mutagenesis in mice using the Sleeping Beauty transposon system.

  Keng VW, Yae K, Hayakawa T, Mizuno S, Uno Y, Yusa K, Kokubu C, Kinoshita T, Akagi K, Jenkins NA, Copeland NG, Horie K and Takeda J

  Nature methods 2005;2;10;763-9

  PUBMED: 16179923; DOI: 10.1038/nmeth795

• Genome-wide phenotype analysis in ES cells by regulated disruption of Bloom's syndrome gene.

  Yusa K, Horie K, Kondoh G, Kouno M, Maeda Y, Kinoshita T and Takeda J

  Nature 2004;429;6994;896-9

  PUBMED: 15215867; DOI: 10.1038/nature02646

• Enhancement of Sleeping Beauty transposition by CpG methylation: possible role of heterochromatin formation.

  Yusa K, Takeda J and Horie K

  Molecular and cellular biology 2004;24;9;4004-18

  PUBMED: 15082793; PMC: 387741

• Characterization of Sleeping Beauty transposition and its application to genetic screening in mice.

  Horie K, Yusa K, Yae K, Odajima J, Fischer SE, Keng VW, Hayakawa T, Mizuno S, Kondoh G, Ijiri T, Matsuda Y, Plasterk RH and Takeda J

  Molecular and cellular biology 2003;23;24;9189-207

  PUBMED: 14645530; PMC: 309709