MBI welcomes new PI Tsuyoshi Hirashima

This June, MBI warmly receives Dr. Tsuyoshi Hirashima as a new Principal Investigator, with a joint-appointment as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology, NUS School of Medicine.

Tsuyoshi received his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from Kyushu University, Japan, developing his expertise in mathematical biology while researching branching morphogenesis in tissue development during his Ph.D. training under the mentorship of Prof. Yoh Iwasa. He continued his training in mathematical modelling and developmental biology through two postdoctoral fellowships, first with Prof. Takashi Miura at Kanazawa University, then with Prof. Ryoichiro Kageyama at Kyoto University.

Tsuyoshi joins MBI from the Hakubi Center/Graduate School of Biostudies, Kyoto University, where his research aims to understand how cell collectives self-organize to create complex biological architectures and patterns. To do this, his group integrates experimental imaging studies with theoretical modelling to carry out biophysical investigation of multicellular dynamics in development and reproduction. Recently, his work demonstrated how a mechanochemical feedback between ERK activation waves and cell deformation leads to cell polarization and subsequent collective cell migration (Dev. Cell, 2020), followed by a biophysical investigation of this mechanochemical patterning (Nature Physics, 2021).

At MBI, Tsuyoshi plans to investigate mechano-chemical feedback and pattern formation in morphogenesis and reproduction, with a focus on collective sperm movement in a reproductive tract and aging.

Tsuyoshi is looking to recruit new members to join his lab and currently has a research fellow position available for a candidate interested in studying collective cell behaviour and dynamics in male reproductive functions and diseases. Please contact him through his email or visit his website‘s recruitment page for more information. More information about Tsuyoshi can also be found on his MBI profile.