Asuka Morizane's Biography

Asuka Morizane, Assistant Professor, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University

Asuka Morizane received his M.D. in 1996 from Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and his Ph.D. in 2004 from Kyoto University. After working as a neurosurgeon in Kobe City General Hospital, he moved to Lund University, Sweden, where he researched on the cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease with human embryonic stem cells. He returned to Kyoto University in2008 and started the research with iPSCs. He was appointed as an assistant professor at the center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University since 2012. Over the last 15 years, he has focused on the application of stem cells for Parkinson’s disease. Recently he used mainly human iPS cells as donor cells. He and his colleagues have performed in vitro and in vivo (especially with monkeys) experiments for clinical application. The group showed the functional recovery of MPTP-treated monkeys after transplantation of clinically compatible human iPS cell-derived dopamine neural progenitors without any tumorigenesis. Based on those research results, the group started the clinical trial of the cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease with iPS cells from 2018.