Keiko Muguruma's Biography

Keiko Muguruma, Research Specialist, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB)

Keiko Muguruma PhD, is Research Specialist of RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) Kobe, Japan. She has been working in the field of neural development and stem cell biology for more than 15 years. Her long-term goal is to develop treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. She established 3D culture systems for in vitro construction of the cerebellum from human iPSCs, including generation of Purkinje cells from patient-derived iPSCs. Her group has recently succeeded in construction of an in vitro disease model for spinocerebellar ataxia type 6 (SCA6) that recapitulates both ontogenesis and pathogenesis. Her group has also developed 3D culture systems to differentiate the cerebral cortex from disease-specific iPSCs. They are currently investigating the pathogenesis of the intractable neurological diseases using in vitro disease models utilizing the patient-derived iPS cells. With her expertise in generating cerebellar and cerebral tissues from disease-specific iPSCs, she hopes to unveil the pathology of various types of SCAs and other neurodegenerative disease. She graduated from Department of Pharmacy, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Japan in 1988. She received the degree of PhD in Pharmacology from Osaka University, Japan in 1998. After working as a Research Scientist at Core Research Program for Evolutional Science and Technology for Japan Science and Technology, she joined Dr. Yohiki Sasai’s group of RIKEN CDB as a Research Scientist in 2003.