Dr. Akitsu Hotta – Postdoctoral Fellow, 2006-2010

Akitsu Hotta received his PhD in Nagoya, Japan. His studies of retrovirus vector derived transgenic chickens were funded by the Japan Scholarship Foundation. Since moving to Toronto, he has raised the bar of our speed cloning records. Hotta’s research is largely focused on new vector designs for stem cell specific expression, but he is also active in the globin and Rett syndrome gene therapy projects.

He is famous in the lab for learning the hard way how to securely lock a bike in Toronto.

Next Position
Assistant Professor, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, Japan.

Selected Publications
Cheung AY, Horvath LM, Grafodatskaya D, Pasceri P, Weksberg R, Hotta A, Carrel L, Ellis J. (2011) Isolation of MECP2-null Rett Syndrome patient hiPS cells and isogenic controls through X-chromosome inactivation. Human Molecular Genetics. 20(11):2103-15.

Fussner E, Djuric U, Strauss M, Hotta A, Perez-Iratxeta C, Lanner F, Dilworth FJ, Ellis J, Bazett-Jones DP. (2011) Constitutive heterochromatin reorganization during somatic cell reprogramming. EMBO Journals. 30(9):1778-89.

Hotta A, Cheung AY, Farra N, Garcha K, Chang WY, Pasceri P, Stanford WL, Ellis J. (2009) EOS lentiviral vector selection system for human induced pluripotent stem cells. Nature Protocols. 4:1828-1844.

Hotta A, Cheung AY, Farra N, Vijayaragavan K, Séguin CA, Draper JS, Pasceri P, Maksakova IA, Mager DL, Rossant J, Bhatia M, Ellis J. (2009) Isolation of human iPS cells using EOS lentiviral vectors to select for pluripotency. Nature Methods. 6:370-376. Featured on cover art.

Hotta A and Ellis J. (2008) Retroviral vector silencing during iPS cell induction: an epigenetic beacon that signals distinct pluripotent states. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry. 105:940-948. Featured on cover art.

Buzina A*, Lo MY*, Moffett A*,  Hotta A, Fussner E, Bharadwaj RR, Pasceri P, Garcia-Martinez JV, Bazett-Jones DP, Ellis J. 2008. Beta-globin LCR and intron elements cooperate and direct spatial reorganization for gene therapy. *Equal first authors. PLOS Genetics. 4:e1000051.

Ellis J, Hotta A, Rastegar M. (2007) Retrovirus silencing by an epigenetic TRIM. Cell. 131:13-14.

Hotta A, Saito Y, Kyogoku K, Kawabe Y, Nishijima K, Kamihira M, Iijima S. (2006) Characterization of transient expression system for retroviral vector production. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering. 101:361-368.

Hotta A, Kamihira M, Itoh K, Morshed M, Kawabe Y, Ono K, Matsumoto H, Nishijima K, Iijima S. (2004) Production of anti-CD2 chimeric antibody by recombinant animal cells. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering. 98:298-303.

Ono K, Kamihira M, Kuga Y, Matsumoto H, Hotta A, Itoh T, Nishijima K, Nakamura N, Matsuda H, Iijima S. (2003) Production of anti-prion scFv-Fc fusion proteins by recombinant animal cells. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering. 95:231-238.