Atsushi Asakura, Ph.D. – MED – Stem Cell Institute …

asakura@umn.edu

Dr. Atsushi Asakura is an Associate Professor of Neurology and a faculty member of the Stem Cell Institute in the University of Minnesota Medical School. He also belongs to Paul & Sheila Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center in the Medical School.

Dr. Asakura received his Ph.D. at the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Tokyo Graduate School and the National Institute of Neuroscience in Tokyo with Dr. Yo-ichi Nabeshima where he learned the molecular biology of skeletal muscle differentiation.

He trained at the post-doctoral level at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle with Dr. Stephen J. Tapscott. His post-doctoral studies involved the transcription factors for skeletal muscle development during early embryogenesis.

He trained at the senior post-doctoral level at McMaster University in Hamilton and the Ottawa Health Research Institute in Ottawa with Dr. Michael A. Rudnicki where he started projects on skeletal muscle stem cells that contribute to muscle regeneration.

My laboratorys goals include attempting to understand the molecular mechanisms controlling muscle satellite cell (muscle stem cell) self-renewal and differentiation, and to develop novel therapeutic methods for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). This also involves the stem cell niche associated with vasculature in normal and regenerating skeletal muscle. And, we have recently begun exploration of cell based therapy with induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) toward muscular dystrophy model animals and heart infarction models.

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Atsushi Asakura, Ph.D. - MED - Stem Cell Institute ...