Miho Iijima, MS, PhD

Professor of Cell Biology

Basic Biomedical Sciences, Institute for

Lipid signaling chemotaxis

Iijima & Sesaki - Lab Website

Environmental Sensing and Signal Transduction

Cells sense and respond to their environments with remarkable precision, enabling them to control behavior, metabolism, and fate in multicellular organisms. The Iijima Laboratory studies how cells detect extracellular cues, such as chemoattractants, hormones, and growth factors, as well as intracellular environments, including metabolic imbalance, organelle stress, and DNA damage. We focus on how these external and internal signals are integrated through shared signaling networks to guide cellular responses in health and disease.

Our research centers on intracellular signal transduction pathways downstream of G protein-coupled receptors and receptor tyrosine kinases, with particular emphasis on PI3-kinase, PTEN, mTORC2, AKT, and small GTPases of the Ras and Rho families. These pathways regulate diverse processes, including chemotactic migration, glucose homeostasis, cell proliferation, DNA repair, bioenergetics, and brain development. We also study innate immune signaling, focusing on how aberrant DNA species generated by mitochondrial dysfunction or genomic stress activate DNA-sensing pathways, including STING-mediated signaling, and how these responses intersect with metabolic and growth control pathways to determine adaptive versus pathological outcomes.

To achieve these goals, our laboratory combines state-of-the-art cell biological approaches, including protein biochemistry, deep mutational analysis, genome-editing technologies, live-cell and advanced microscopy, and mouse models. Through these integrated approaches, we aim to uncover fundamental principles of cellular signaling and translate them toward therapeutic strategies for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and inflammatory disorders.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/miho.iijima.1/bibliography/public/

• Igarashi, A., Itoh, K., Yamada, T., Adachi, Y., kato, T., Murata, D., Sesaki, H., and Iijima, M. (2018). Nuclear PTEN deficiency causes microcephaly with decreased neuronal soma size and increased seizure susceptibility. J. Biol. Chem. 5;293: 9292-9300

• Nguyen, H-N., Yang, J.M., Afkari, Y., Park, B.H., Sesaki, H., Devreotes, P.N. and Iijima, M. (2014). Engineering ePTEN: an enhanced PTEN with increased tumor suppressor activities. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 111: E2684-2693

• Senoo H, Kamimura K, Kimura R, Nakajima A, Sawai S, Sesaki H, Iijima M. (2019). Phosphorylated Rho-GDP directly activates mTORC2 Kinase toward AKT through dimerization with Ras-GTP to regulate cell migration. Nat. Cell Biol. 21: 867-878

• Wang, Y., Senoo, H., Sesaki, H. and Iijima, M. (2013). Rho GTPases orient gradient sensing in chemotaxis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 110: E4723-32

• Yang, J.M., Schiapparelli, P., Nguyen, H-N., Igarashi, A., Zhang, Q., Abbadi, S., Amzel, L.M., Sesaki, H., Quiñones-Hinojosa, A., and Iijima, M. (2017). Characterization of PTEN mutations in brain cancer reveals that PTEN mono-ubiquitination promotes protein stability and nuclear localization. Oncogene. 36: 3673-3685

• Beginning Grant-in-Aid, American Heart Association, 1/1/07
• Special fellowship, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, 1/1/04
• The Albert L. Lehninger Award for Young Investigators Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1/1/03
• Special Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 1/1/99

• Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 2004, Cell Biology