Assistant Professor of Neurology Harvard Medical School

Investigator, Asst Prof (M) NSI Neuro Memory MGPO, Mass General Research Institute

Ph.D. Kyoto University 2014

B.S. Kyoto University 2009

alzheimer disease; biosensing techniques; fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy; fluorescence resonance energy transfer; neuronal death; presenilin/gamma-secretase; time-lapse imaging I have extensive experience in molecular biology and microscopy. I have been involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research for over 17 years, starting with my undergraduate, during Master’s degree, and Ph.D. programs at Kyoto University Japan, my post-doc training at MGH/Harvard Medical School, and currently, as an Assistant Professor leading my independent research laboratory. I possess strong motivation and mentorship skills necessary to lead a multifunctional team aimed to make a positive impact in AD research. The main focus of my lab is on presenilin (PSEN)/γ-secretase biology since this protease is tightly associated with familial AD pathogenesis. Furthermore, the mutations on the genes encoding PSEN are also linked to epileptic seizure and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). γ-Secretase is also essential for normal development and plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of diseases beyond neurodegenerative diseases such as cancers, acne inversa, etc. Therefore, I have been working hard on the development, optimization, and utilization of several novel Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based imaging assays to address unsolved questions that include how γ-secretase activity is spatiotemporally regulated in live cells and what are the consequences of the changes in γ-secretase activity in physiological and pathological conditions. 

Active Funding
NIH/NIA R01AG079838 (PI: Maesako)

Current lab members
Midori Yokomizo, PhD
Emily Williams
Michael Sadek, HMS student
Natalia Wieckiewicz

Lab alumni 
Jana Horlacher, MD
Nicole Sekula, MD
Mei Houser, PhD candidate
Alec Mckendell, PhD candidate
Brianna Lundin
Victoria Derosla

Student trainees/Interns
Hannah Weisman
Anna Aristarkhova, MD-PhD candidate 
Polina Feschenko
Maya Mody, PhD candidate
Yuliia Turchyna, PhD candidate 
Yuya Ikegawa, MD
Anne-Claire Comby, PhD candidate
Sebastian Torres
Emmalynn Shmulsky