
Yukiko Yamashita,Ph.D.
Yukiko Yamashita obtained her Ph.D. from Kyoto University, Japan; completing the postdoctoral fellowship with Minx Fuller at Stanford University. She started her own laboratory at the University of Michigan in 2007, and is currently an associate professor at the University of Michigan.
She studies how adult stem cells divide asymmetrically, giving rise to one stem cell and one differentiating cell, to maintain tissue homeostasis in the context of the stem cell niche. The particular focus is on how general cell biological processes, such as cell cycle regulation and cytoskeleton organization, which are shared by many other non-stem cells, are modulated in a stem cell-specific manner to fulfill stem cell function.
Yamashita is a recipient of 2008 Searle Scholar Award, 2009 ASCB WICB junior award, 2011 MacArthur Fellowship, and is an HHMI investigator since 2014.