Assistant Professor of Neurology Harvard Medical School

Investigator, Asst Prof (M) Neurology, Mass General Research Institute

Ph.D. Kyoto University 2014

B.S. Kyoto University 2009

alzheimer disease; biosensing techniques; fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy; microscopy confocal; neuronal death; presenilin/gamma-secretase 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. 

Current lab member
Midori Yokomizo
Emily Williams
Michael Sadek
Natalia Wieckiewicz
Victoria Derosla
Emmalynn Shmulsky

Active Funding
NIH/NIA R01AG079838 (PI: Maesako)