Professor Okano Hideyuki, MD, PhD
- Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology at Keio University School of Medicine
- Vice President of ISSCR
He received M.D. in Physiology from Keio University in 1983. After he obtained a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology of Myelin-related genes and myelin deficient mutant mice from Keio University in 1988, he held a post-doctoral position at Dr. Craig Montell’s Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was appointed full professor at Tsukuba University School of Medicine in 1994, Osaka University School of Medicine in 1997, and returned to Keio University Medical School in 2001 as a full professor of Physiology. He has been conducting basic research in the field of regenerative medicine including neural stem cells and iPS cells, spinal cord injury, developmental genetics, and RNA binding proteins.
He has been awarded a number of awards and honors including the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2009, the first prize of the 51st Erwin von Bälz Prize in 2014, and the Uehara Prize in 2022. He aims to establish and provide patient-specific iPS cells and genetically modified non-human primate models for neuroscience research and to explore the pathogenic mechanisms of neurological/psychiatric disorders. Currently, he is the leader of the Brain Project in Japan (Brain/MINDS) and the President of the Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine. In 2022, he joined the Faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, McGovern Institute) as a Visiting Professor. He was elected as the Vice President of the ISSCR in 2023 and his term began on July 1, 2023