CREW
Team 2023
Ryozo IMAI, PhD
Adjunct Professor/Executive Researcher
Dr. Ryozo Imai majored Chemistry and Chemical engineering in his undergraduate study at Waseda University. He received M.S in Life Chemistry from Tokyo Instutute of Technology and Ph.D. in Agricultural Chemistry from University of Tokyo. His graduate study is on microbial degradation of xenobiotics.
He started to work on plant biology when he did postdoc at University of California, Riverside, where he studied on drought tolerance of tomato. He worked on plant cold tolerance at NARO-HARC (1997-2016). He also served as an adjunct professor at graduate school of Agriculture, Hokkaido University (2008-2016). He is currently adjunct professor of Tokyo University of Science.
WATARU ACKELEY, PHD
Principal Researcher
Dr. Ackeley graduated from Konan University majoring Biology. After finishing his master's degree, he worked at Japan Grassland Agriculture and Forage Seed Association. He then moved to the National Grassland Research Institute at Nasu. He received a PhD degree in Biology from Konan University. In this lab, he is applying iPB technology for genome editing in wheat commercial varieties.
Kentaro Sasaki, PhD
Principal Researcher
Dr. Sasaki gradated from Tsukuba University and received PhD from Hokkaido University. His major is molecular biology and crop biotechnology. He is currently developing iPB technology for a variety of crop and horticultural plants.
daisuke tezuka, phd
Researcher
Dr. Tezuka joined Imai lab in 2012 as an undergrad student. He graduated from Hokkaido University in 2014 majoring Bio-functional Chemistry. He received his PhD in Agricultural Science from Hokkaido University in 2019. He was appointed by NARO in 2022 as a staff researcher. His current research focus is development of iPB method for HDR-based genome editing.
Kaoru Urano, Phd
Researcher
Dr. Urano graduated from Japan Women's University with her major in biology. As a graduate student she studied at Shinozaki Lab in RIKEN and received her PhD from University of Tsukuba. She was a researcher at RIKEN before she joined the lab in 2021.
Rintaro suzuki, phd
Visiting Researcher
Dr. Suzuki joined the lab in 2020. He received his Batchelor's and Doctor's degrees from Tokyo University of Science.
hajime nakano, phd
Postdoc Researcher
Dr. Nakano graduated from Tokyo University of Agriculture and received his PhD in horitcultre from the same university. Before he joined the lab in 2021, he was a postdoc at University of Tokyo.
kodai Takemoto, phD
Postdoc Researcher
Dr. Takemoto graduated from the University of Tokyo and received his PhD in Biology from the university in 2018. His PhD research is on membrane traficking in Arabidopsis. He did his Ph D research on plant hormone with Dr. Shinjiro Yamguchi at Kyoto University.
Kazunori Kuriyama, PHD
Postdoc Researcher
Dr. Kuriyama graduated from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and received his Ph.D. from the university. His Ph.D study was on gene silencing in Petunia. He joined our lab in 2023. He is currently a trainee at Imai Lab.
Kenichiro Fujii, PHD
Postdoc Researcher
Dr. Fujii received his bachelor's and Ph.D. degree from Kyoto University majoring crop science. He did postdoc researches on soybean breeding at NARO Institute of Crop Science and on quinoa breeding at JIRCAS. He is currently developing an iPB-based genome editing system in soybean.
Worarad Kanjana, PHD
Postdoc Researcher
Dr. Kanjana graduated from Ramkhamheang University, Thailand majoring Biological Science. She came to Japan for graduate study and received her Ph.D. in Biological Production Science from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 2017. She joined Imai lab in 2023 as a postdoc.
Taiki Ogawa, PHD
Postdoc Researcher
Dr. Ogawa graduated from Kyoto University. He received a Ph.D in Plant Pathology from Kyoto University in 2023. He specialized in plant-microbe interactions. He joined Imai lab in 2023 and currently working on soybean genome editing.