{"id":31,"date":"2026-03-10T17:15:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/?page_id=31"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:39:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T04:39:47","slug":"motozono_chihiro","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/members\/motozono_chihiro\/","title":{"rendered":"\u672c\u5712 \u5343\u5c0b"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u672c\u5712\u3000\u5343\u5c0b
\n-Chihiro, Motozono-<\/h3>\n

\u51c6\u6559\u6388 Associate Professor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\u672c\u5712<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Chihiro Motozono, Ph.D.<\/h4>\n

Associate Professor (PI) of Division of Division of infection and immunity, Joint research center for Human Retrovirus infection, Kumamoto University<\/p>\n

Present address<\/h4>\n

Division of infection and immunity, Joint research center for Human Retrovirus infection, Kumamoto University, 2-2-1 Honjo, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto, 860-0811 Japan
\nTel: +81-96-373-6225
\nE-mail address: motozono(at)kumamoto-u.ac.jp<\/p>\n

EDUCATION\/TRAINING<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • 03\/2004 Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan B.S. Biochemistry<\/li>\n
  • 03\/2006 Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan M.S. Medical Sciences<\/li>\n
  • 03\/2010 Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan Ph.D. Viral immunology<\/li>\n
  • 09\/2010 Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan Postdoctoral Viral Immunology<\/li>\n
  • 06\/2012 Cardiff University, Wales, UK Postdoctoral Immunology<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Position and Employment<\/h4>\n
      \n
    • 2012-2016: Assistant professor, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, Osaka, Japan<\/li>\n
    • 2016-2017: Assistant professor, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan<\/li>\n
    • 2017-2020: Assistant professor, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan<\/li>\n
    • 2020-2022: Lecturer, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan<\/li>\n
    • 2023-\u3000\u3000: Associate Professor, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Honors<\/h4>\n
        \n
      • 2026: Kumamoto Medical Society Encouragement Award<\/li>\n
      • 2023: ECC Yamaguchi Memorial AIDS Research Encouragement Award of the Japanese Society for AIDS Research<\/li>\n
      • 2023: Best paper award in Joint research center for Human Retrovirus infection, Kumamoto University, 2022, Kumamoto, Japan.<\/li>\n
      • 2022: Best Research award in Kumamoto University, 2022, Kumamoto, Japan.<\/li>\n
      • 2022: Best paper award in Joint research center for Human Retrovirus infection, Kumamoto University, 2021, Kumamoto, Japan.<\/li>\n
      • 2021: Best presentation award, 30th Japan cytometry Society annual meeting, Japan<\/li>\n
      • 2018: Best presentation award, 47th Japanese Society for Immunology annual meeting, Japan<\/li>\n
      • 2010: Wellcome Trust Value in People Fellowship Award (Cardiff University, UK)<\/li>\n
      • 2010: Keystone Symposia Scholarship, The Keystone Symposia on HIV Vaccines (X5)<\/li>\n
      • 2009: Melchers Travel Award, The 39th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Immunology<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        Selected peer-reviewed publications<\/h4>\n
          \n
        1. Nakama, T#., Wall, A#., Dolton G#., Tan, LR., Thomas, H., Hamana, H., Aritsu, Y., Tan, TS., Toyoda, M., Goto, Y., Li, H., Kitamatsu, K., Udaka, K., Miyashita, Y., Oshiumi, H., Nakamura, K., Nagasaki, Y., Minami, R., Nakata, .H, Rizkallah, PJ., Kishi, H., Ueno, T., Sewell, AK*., Motozono, C*. Position-5-Driven Reorientation of the Immunodominant HLA-A*24:02 SARS-CoV-2 Epitope Underlies Universal T-cell Escape. JCI Insight<\/strong><\/em>, In press,<\/li>\n
        2. Aritsu, Y., Kitabatake, M., Kurose, A., Hamana, H., Nakama, T., Yamada, K., Furukawa, R., Ouji-Sageshima, N., Hara, A., Yasuike, K., Itami, S., Li, H., Udaka, K., Kishi, H., Ueno, T., Nakagawa, S., Ito, T., Kawashita, N., Kitamatsu, M., Motozono, C*. N-terminal pyroglutamylation of an HLA-A24-restricted immunodominant epitope enhances SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses, Frontiers in Immunology<\/strong><\/em>, In press, 2026.<\/li>\n
        3. Goto, Y#., Dolton, G#., Thomas, H., Morin, T., Tajima, Y., Imamura, K, Sakata, S., Oka, K., Hayashi, A., Takahashi, M., Ueno, T., Sakagami, T., Tomita, Y*., Sewell, AK*, and Motozono, C*. A probiotic bacterium modulates antitumor \u03b3\u03b4 T-cell responses in lung cancer. Frontiers in Immunology<\/strong><\/em>, In press, 2026.<\/li>\n
        4. Goto, Y., Ahn, YM., Toyoda, M., Hamana, H., Jin, Y., Aritsu, Y., Nakama, T., Tajima, Y., Maddumage, JC., Li, H., Kitamatsu, M., Kishi, H., Yonekawa, A., Jayasinghe, D., Shimono, N., Nagasaki, Y., Minami, R., Toya, T., Sekiya, N., Tomita, Y., Chatzileontiadou, DSM., Nakata, H., Nakagawa, S., Sakagami, T., Ueno, T., Gras, S*., Motozono, C*. Molecular basis of potent antiviral HLA-C-restricted CD8+ T cell response to an immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid epitope. Nature Communications<\/strong><\/em>, 16(1):8062, 2025.<\/li>\n
        5. Motozono, C*., Toyoda, M., Tan, TS., Hamana, H., Aritsu, Y., Miyashita, Y., Oshiumi, H., Nakamura, K., Okada, S., Udaka, K., Kitamatsu, M., Kishi, H., Ueno, T*. The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 spike G446S mutation potentiates antiviral T cell recognition.
          \nNature Communications<\/strong><\/em> 13(1):5440, 2022. *Corresponding equally<\/li>\n
        6. Shibata, K, Motozono, C., Nagae M., Shimizu, T., Ishikawa, E., Motooka, D., Okuzaki, D., Izumi Y., Takahashi, M., Fujimori N., Wing JB., Hayano, T., Asai Y., Bamba, T., Ogawa Y., Furutani-Seiki M., Shirai M., Yamasaki S. Symbiotic bacteria-dependent expansion of MR1-reactive T cells causes autoimmunity in the absence of Bcl11b in lymphocytes. Nature Communications<\/strong><\/em>, 13(1):6948, 2022.<\/li>\n
        7. Motozono, C., Toyoda., M, Zahradnik, J., Saito, A., Nasser, H., Tan, TS., Ngare, I., Kimura, I., Uriu, K., Kosugi, Y., Yue, Y, Shimizu., R, Ito, J., Torii, S., Yonekawa, A., Shimono, N., Nagasaki, Y., Minami, R., Toya, T., Sekiya, N., Fukuhara, T., Matsuura, Y., Schreiber, G., Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium, Ikeda, T*., Nakagawa, S*., Ueno, T*., Sato, K*. SARS-CoV-2 spike L452R variant evades cellular immunity and increases infectivity. Cell Host & Microbe<\/strong><\/em> 29(7):1124-1136.e11., 2021. *Corresponding equally<\/li>\n
        8. Takano, T., Motozono, C*., Imai, T., Sonoda, KH., Nakanishi, Y., Yamasaki, S*.
          \nDectin-1 intracellular domain determines species-specific ligand spectrum by modulating receptor sensitivity. J. Biol. Chem<\/strong><\/em>. 292(41):16933-16941, 2017. *Corresponding equally<\/li>\n
        9. Motozono, C#., Pearson, JA#., De Leenheer, E., Rizkallah, PJ., Beck, K., Trimby, A., Sewell, AK., Wong, FS., Cole, DK. Distortion of the Major Histocompatibility Complex Class I Binding Groove to Accommodate an Insulin-derived 10-Mer Peptide. J. Biol. Chem<\/strong><\/em>. 290(31): 18924-18933, 2015. #Contributed equally<\/li>\n
        10. Motozono, C., Bridgeman, JS., Price, DA., Sewell, AK., Ueno, T. Clonotypically similar hybrid \u03b1\u03b2 T cell receptors can exhibit markedly different surface expression, antigen specificity and cross-reactivity. Clin. Exp. Immunol<\/strong><\/em>. 180(3): 560-570, 2014.<\/li>\n
        11. Motozono, C#, Kuse, N#., Sun, X., Rizkallah, PJ., Fuller, A., Oka, S., Cole, DK., Sewell, AK., Takiguchi, M. Molecular basis of a dominant T cell response to an HIV reverse transcriptase 8-mer epitope presented by the protective allele HLA-B*51:01. J. Immunol<\/strong><\/em>. 192(7): 3428-3434, 2014. #Contributed equally<\/li>\n
        12. Motozono, C., Yokoyama, M., Sato, H., Ueno, T. Cross-reactivity analysis of T cell receptors specific for overlapping HIV-1 Nef epitopes of different lengths. Microbes. Infect<\/strong><\/em>. 16(4): 320-327, 2014.<\/li>\n
        13. Motozono, C., Miles, JJ., Hasan, Z., Gatanaga, H., Meribe, SC., Price, DA., Oka, S., Sewell, AK., Ueno, T. CD8(+) T cell cross-reactivity profiles and HIV-1 immune escape towards an HLA-B35-restricted immunodominant Nef epitope. PLoS One<\/strong><\/em>. 8(6): e66152, 2013.<\/li>\n
        14. Motozono, C., Yanaka, S., Tsumoto, K., Takiguchi, M., Ueno, T. Impact of intrinsic cooperative thermodynamics of peptide-MHC complexes on antiviral activity of HIV-specific CTL. J. Immunol<\/strong><\/em>. 182(9): 5528-5536, 2009.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u672c\u5712\u3000\u5343\u5c0b -Chihiro, Motozono- \u51c6\u6559\u6388 Associate Professor Chihiro Motozono, Ph.D. Associate Professor (PI) of Division… View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions\/99"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kumamoto-u-jrchri.jp\/motozono\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}