Kazuki Saito PhD

Dr. Kazuki Saito graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1977 and obtained Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry/biochemistry of pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Tokyo. After staying at Keio University in Japan and Ghent University in Belgium (Prof. Marc Van Montagu's laboratory), he began molecular biology and biotechnology of plant primary and secondary metabolism at Chiba University in Japan. He has been appointed as a full professor since 1995 at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, until 2020. Currently, he is a Professor Emeritus, Director, Plant Molecular Science Center at Chiba University. Since 2005, he has been further involved as the Group Director to lead the Metabolomics Group in the RIKEN Plant Science Center, now renamed the Center for Sustainable Resource Science since 2013. He has served as Deputy Center Director until 2020. He is now appointed as the Director of RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science.

His current research interests are metabolomics-based functional genomics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and biotechnology of primary and secondary metabolism in plants. Recent focus has been put on the development of integration of multi-omics emphasizing metabolomics. By means of this integrated approach, he is engaging in biosynthetic/metabolic study of a wide range of plant products; e.g., sulfur-containing compounds, amino acids, flavonoids, phenolics, alkaloids, and terpenoids. For his distinguished research, he was awarded several prestigious prizes and recognitions including Medal with Purple Ribbon.