Masayuki Yamamoto MD, PhD

Masayuki Yamamoto is graduated from Tohoku University School of Medicine (M.D.) in 1979 and the Graduate School of Medicine (Ph.D.) in 1983. From 1983–1986, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University with Professor Doug Engel. During this period, I cloned and proved the presence of erythroid isozyme of 5-aminolevulinate synthase, the first enzyme of heme biosynthesis. In 1989, I revisited the Engel laboratory and in collaboration identified the GATA family of transcription factors, which are now widely studied and one of the prototype transcription factor families regulating lineage commitment and cell differentiation. In 1991, I returned to Japan and started analyses of the Gata1 and Gata2 genes. In 1995, I started a series of analyses on CNC and the Maf family of transcription factors and identified the Keap1-Nrf2 system regulating the cellular response against electrophilic and oxidative stresses. Since then, I have been addressing many questions related to this important regulatory pathway.