Research fellow

Shinya Yokomizo, PhD

Postdoc Research Fellow in Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School 

Academic & Professional Experience

• ISTAART Postdoctoral Member, Alzheimer’s Association (2025-Present)

• Trainee Member, American Heart Association (2022-Present)

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School (2022-Present)

• Postdoctoral Member, Society for Neuroscience (2022-Present)

• Member, SPIE (International Society for Optics and Photonics) (2021-Present)

• Visiting Scholar, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School (2018-2022)

• Research Assistant, Department of Radiation Effects Research, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (2015-2019)

Education

• Ph.D. in Radiological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan (2022)

• M.S. in Radiological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan (2019)

• B.S. in Radiological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Tokyo, Japan (2017)

Dr. Yokomizo is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He was trained in Japan as a nationally licensed radiological technologist, gaining expertise in clinical imaging modalities including CT, MRI, PET, and SPECT. To acquire training in translational research, he joined the Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital as a Visiting Scholar during his Ph.D. training. During his Ph.D studies under Drs. Satoshi Kashiwagi and Homan Kang, he focused on near-infrared (NIR) imaging for detecting oxidative stress. While working in a chemistry-centered lab, he developed biological experimental systems and refined his surgical and imaging techniques for both in vitro and in vivo applications. For his doctoral research, he became interested in the therapeutic potential of NIR light, which he had previously used for imaging. This led him to study photobiomodulation (PBM) using NIR light on vascular endothelial cells. Under the mentorship of Drs. Kashiwagi and Dmitry Atochin, he demonstrated that NIR light improved cerebral blood flow, eNOS phosphorylation, and stroke outcomes. He subsequently developed a strong interest in neuroscience and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and transitioned to this field when he joined Dr. Ksenia Kastanenka’s laboratory in the Department of Neurology at MGH. Dr. Kastanenka has nearly 15 years of experience studying Alzheimer’s disease, and under her mentorship, Dr. Yokomizo acquired in-depth knowledge of neuroscience by attending the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) annual meetings. He also participated in the FastTrack workshop, which deepened his Alzheimer’s expertise and facilitated collaborations that led to a Trainee Professional Development Award from SfN. His research contributions include a co-first-author paper in Scientific Reports, a review article, and a first-author manuscript currently under review at Advanced Science, examining the relationship between sleep impairment and Alzheimer’s progression. His PBM studies, published in Stroke (2024), were featured on the journal’s cover and have been cited by independent groups investigating vascular protection in ischemia–reperfusion injury. To date, he has authored 25 peer-reviewed publications and mentored 10 students. Dr. Yokomizo’s career goal is to establish an independent research program investigating how cerebrovascular function contributes to sleep impairment in Alzheimer’s disease, ultimately aiming to identify early biomarkers and translational strategies to improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of AD.