About

Motohiro Akashi received his Ph.D. in Bioscience from the Tokyo University of Agriculture. He is a molecular ecologist and evolutionary biologist whose research combines microbiology, virology, bioinformatics, and theoretical biology to understand how microorganisms and viruses shape biological systems across multiple scales.

His research focuses on giant viruses (Nucleocytoviricota) as model systems for studying host–virus interactions, microbial ecology, and evolutionary processes. By integrating virus isolation, environmental surveys, genome and metagenome analyses, and computational approaches, he investigates where giant viruses occur, how they interact with their hosts, and how they influence ecosystem dynamics.

He is also interested in mutation bias, disparity mutagenesis, and the evolutionary mechanisms that generate biological diversity. His long-term goal is to establish an integrated framework connecting molecular evolution, microbial interactions, and ecosystem-level processes.