Assistant Professor of Neurology Harvard Medical School

Assistant Investigator Neurology, Mass General Research Institute

PhD Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine 2014

alzheimer disease; amyloid beta-peptides; biosensing techniques; fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy; microscopy confocal; presenilin/gamma-secretase I have extensive experience in molecular biology and microscopy. I have been involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research for over 15 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 research 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 on the development and optimization 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. Specifically, the imaging assays utilizing novel FRET biosensors that I have recently engineered enable visualization and reporting of the dynamic regulation of the enzymatic activity of γ-secretase in live neurons in vitro and intact mouse brains in vivo. 

Current lab member
Midori Yokomizo
Brianna Lundin
Natalia Wieckiewicz

Active Funding
NIH/NIA R01AG079838 (PI: Maesako)