Yoshiki Sasai Explained

Yoshiki Sasai
Birth Date:5 March 1962
Birth Place:Hyogo, Japan
Death Place:Kobe, Hyogo, Japan
Death Cause:Suicide by hanging
Nationality:Japanese
Fields:Biology
Workplaces:RIKEN
Alma Mater:Kyoto University
Doctoral Advisor:Shigetada Nakanishi
Awards:Osaka Science Prize
Inoue Prize for Science
Website:www.cdb.riken.jp/sasai/ (archived)

was a Japanese stem cell biologist. He developed methods to guide human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into forming brain cortex, eyes (optic cups), and other organs in tissue culture. Sasai worked at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, and was Director of the Laboratory for Organogenesis and Neurogenesis. Following his involvement in the 2014 STAP cell controversy, Sasai was found dead at Riken from an apparent suicide.

Early life and education

Yoshiki Sasai was born in 1962 in Hyogo, Japan. He received his medical degree from Kyoto University's School of Medicine in 1986. In 1993 Sasai was awarded a PhD from the Kyoto University School of Medicine, and served a residency at Kobe Municipal General Hospital.

Career

Sasai worked as a research fellow at Edward M. De Robertis's laboratory at UCLA School of Medicine until 1996.[1] Sasai became an associate professor at Kyoto University in 1996, and a full professor in 1998. In 2003 he moved to the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology as Director of the organogenesis and neurogenesis group.

Sasai was known for developing methods to grow stem cells into organ-like structures.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] In 2012, Sasai became the first stem cell researcher to grow an optic cup from human cells.[10]

STAP controversy

In 2014 Sasai was a co-author on two papers published in Nature, shortly thereafter retracted, that described stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency or "STAP" cells.[11] [12] [13]

A subsequent investigation by Riken found that Sasai's co-author, Haruko Obokata, had committed scientific misconduct in the STAP cell experiments, and criticized Sasai for inadequate supervision of Obokata.[14] [15] [16] In response to the Riken investigation, Sasai described himself as "overwhelmed with shame",[17] and following a month of hospitalization was found dead from an apparent suicide by hanging on August 5, 2014.[18] [19] [20] [21]

Awards and honours

2010 Osaka Science Prize for his work on in vitro recapitulation of brain development

2012 Inoue Prize for Science.[22]

2013 Hans Sigrist Prize[23]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Brief Resume of Dr. Yoshiki Sasai. News & Media. Riken. 26 August 2014.
  2. 10.1038/488444a. 22914148. Tissue engineering: The brainmaker. Nature. 488. 7412. 444–6. 2012. Cyranoski . D. . 2012Natur.488..444C. free.
  3. 10.1038/513034a. Yoshiki Sasai (1962–2014) Stem-cell biologist who decoded signals in embryos. Nature. 513. 7516. 34. 2014. Alvarez-Buylla . Arturo. 25186892. free.
  4. 11086981. 2000. Kawasaki. H. Induction of midbrain dopaminergic neurons from ES cells by stromal cell-derived inducing activity. Neuron. 28. 1. 31–40. Mizuseki. K. Nishikawa. S. Kaneko. S. Kuwana. Y. Nakanishi. S. Nishikawa. S. I.. Sasai. Y . 10.1016/s0896-6273(00)00083-0. 14248134. free.
  5. 8752213. 3070603. 1996. Piccolo. S. Dorsoventral patterning in Xenopus: Inhibition of ventral signals by direct binding of chordin to BMP-4. Cell. 86. 4. 589–98. Sasai. Y. Lu. B. De Robertis. E. M. . 10.1016/s0092-8674(00)80132-4.
  6. 8001117. 3082463. 1994. Sasai. Y. Xenopus chordin: A novel dorsalizing factor activated by organizer-specific homeobox genes. Cell. 79. 5. 779–90. Lu. B. Steinbeisser. H. Geissert. D. Gont. L. K.. De Robertis. E. M. . 10.1016/0092-8674(94)90068-X.
  7. Watanabe . K. . Ueno . M. . Kamiya . D. . Nishiyama . A. . Matsumura . M. . Wataya . T. . Takahashi . J. B. . Nishikawa . S. . Nishikawa . S. I. . Muguruma . 10.1038/nbt1310 . K. . Sasai . Y. . A ROCK inhibitor permits survival of dissociated human embryonic stem cells . Nature Biotechnology . 25 . 6 . 681–686 . 2007 . 17529971 . 8213725 .
  8. 8757128. 1996. Bouwmeester. T. Cerberus is a head-inducing secreted factor expressed in the anterior endoderm of Spemann's organizer. Nature. 382. 6592. 595–601. Kim. S. Sasai. Y. Lu. B. De Robertis. E. M.. 10.1038/382595a0. 1996Natur.382..595B. 4361202.
  9. 1340473. 1992. Sasai. Y. Two mammalian helix-loop-helix factors structurally related to Drosophila hairy and Enhancer of split. Genes & Development. 6. 12B. 2620–34. Kageyama. R. Tagawa. Y. Shigemoto. R. Nakanishi. S . 10.1101/gad.6.12b.2620. free.
  10. Web site: Dvorsky. George. Scientists spark the growth of a human eye with stem cells. 18 June 2012. io9. Moreover, Sasai's breakthrough marks the first time that such a complicated feat was done with human cells.. 6 July 2013. 26 February 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140226153042/http://io9.com/5919186/scientists-spark-the-growth-of-a-human-eye-with-stem-cells. dead.
  11. Obokata . Haruko . Wakayama . Teruhiko . Sasai . Yoshiki . 2014 . Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency . . 505 . 7485 . 641–647 . 10.1038/nature12968 . 24476887. 4463394 . etal.
  12. 10.1038/nature13598 . Retraction: Stimulus-triggered fate conversion of somatic cells into pluripotency . Nature . 2014 . 511 . 7507 . 112 . Haruko . Obokata . 24990753. 2014Natur.511Q.112O . free .
  13. Web site: Nature journal retracts stem cell paper citing "critical errors" . Reuters . July 2, 2014 . July 2, 2014 . Lawrence, Janet.
  14. Ishii, Shunsuke et al. (March 31, 2014) Report on STAP Cell Research Paper Investigation. riken.jp
  15. News: Stem cell debacle déjà vu. Bio Edge. April 6, 2014. April 6, 2014.
  16. Web site: Haruko Obokata, Who Claimed Stem Cell Breakthrough, Found Guilty of Scientific Misconduct . . April 1, 2014 . April 1, 2014 . Schlanger, Zoe.
  17. Rasko, John; Power, Carl; What pushes scientists to lie? The disturbing but familiar story of Haruko Obokata; The Guardian; https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/18/haruko-obokata-stap-cells-controversy-scientists-lie
  18. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/japanese-stem-cell-scientist-yoshiki-sasai-found-dead-in-apparent-suicide-9650050.html "Japanese stem cell scientist Yoshiki Sasai found dead in apparent suicide", The Independent, 5 August 2014
  19. News: Japanese Stem-Cell Scientist Yoshiki Sasai Is Dead . . 5 August 2014 .
  20. http://www.nature.com/news/collateral-damage-how-one-misconduct-case-brought-a-biology-institute-to-its-knees-1.17427 Collateral damage: How one misconduct case brought a biology institute to its knees
  21. Web site: Asahi Shinbun Digital, August 4, 2014 . August 5, 2014 . July 6, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190706023635/https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASG853DJ9G85PIHB005.html . dead .
  22. Web site: Sayer Vision Research Lecture and Award 2012. National Eye Institute. 6 July 2013.
  23. Web site: 2019-04-03. Hans Sigrist Prize Winners. 2020-09-02. The Hans Sigrist Foundation.

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