Our research goal is to identify mechanisms of how the offspring memorize their environmental exposure status in utero throughout life and how the genetic variations contribute to the effects. We focus on the effects of an in utero micronutrient deficiency on cell subtype proportions and cell memory, and diseases later in life. Our hypothesis is that adverse prenatal exposures can change the repertoire of cell subtypes that compose the mature organ, conferring much of the risk of developing disease phenotypes. Currently, we are focusing on prenatal deficiencies of fat-soluble micronutrients, vitamins A and D.

1.    Lundy K, Greally JF, Essilfie-Bondzie G, Olivier JB, Doña-Termine R, Greally JM, Suzuki M*. Vitamin D deficiency during development permanently alters liver cell composition and function. Frontiers Endocrinology 2022 May 12; 13:860286. PMID: 35634491

2.   Suzuki M*, Tomita M. Genetic Variations of Vitamin A-Absorption and Storage-Related Genes, and Their Potential Contribution to Vitamin A Deficiency Risks Among Different Ethnic Groups. Front Nutr. 2022; 9:861619. Review. PMID: 35571879

3.    Suzuki M*, Wang T, Garretto D, Isasi CR, Cardoso WV, Greally JM, Quadro L. Disproportionate Vitamin A Deficiency in Women of Specific Ethnicities Linked to Differences in Allele Frequencies of Vitamin A-Related Polymorphisms. Nutrients. 2021; 13(6):1743. PMID: 34063790

4.   Kong Y, Rastogi D, Seoighe C, Greally JM, Suzuki M*. Insights from deconvolution of cell subtype proportions enhance the interpretation of functional genomic data. PLOS ONE. 2019 14: e0215987. PMID: 31022271.   

* Corresponding author

Complete List of Published Work in MyBibliography:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/masako.suzuki.1/bibliography/43270174/public/?sort=date&direction=descending