A photo of Takanori Takebe.

Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD


  • Director for Commercial Innovation, Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Research and Medicine (CuSTOM)
  • Endowed Chair of Organoid Medicine
  • Associate Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics
  • Professor, Institute of Research, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan
I’m focused on developing an 'in-a-dish' engineering strategy for directing complex hepatogenesis from human stem cells.
Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD

About

Biography

In 2010, I spent time as a surgical intern at one of the world’s leading liver transplant centers. There, I met many patients with life-threatening illnesses who were unlikely to live long enough to receive lifesaving donor organs.

This experience motivated me to find alternative approaches to traditional transplantation. Specifically, I’m focused on developing an “in-a-dish” engineering strategy for directing complex hepatogenesis from human stem cells.

Living systems have an amazing power to develop. Our work aims to “nudge” nature's ability to grow into organs. My ultimate goal is to save children in need of a new liver through the development of organoids — stem-cell-derived miniature organs. Organoid technology allows for the study of drug development and transplant applications otherwise impossible.

My team and I have been successful in designing complex miniature organs in a dish from pluripotent stem cells, for example, by integration of vascular, mesenchymal and immune components into human liver organoids. Most notably, while studying early liver development, we engineered human stem cells into multi-organs composed of hepato-biliary-pancreatic tissue with interconnected structures.

For my work, I have been honored with the Japan Academy Medal and the Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Award from The New York Stem Cell Foundation.

At Cincinnati Children’s, I serve as director for commercial innovation within the Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Research and Medicine (CuSTOM). I am also on the faculty within the Institute of Research at Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan.

I serve on the board of directors for the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) and the editorial boards for Stem Cell Reports, Hepatology and Cell Reports Medicine.

I greatly enjoy the work I do and invite anyone who’s interested to follow along virtually with our activities.

MD: Yokohama City University, Japan, 2011.

Interests

Hepatology; transplantation

Services and Specialties

Gastroenterology GI

Interests

Organoid; organogenesis; stem cell biology; transplantation; drug development

Visit the Takebe Research Lab.

Research Areas

Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition, Developmental Biology

Publications

Selected

Correction of a Factor VIII genomic inversion with designer-recombinases. Lansing, F; Mukhametzyanova, L; Rojo-Romanos, T; Iwasawa, K; Kimura, M; Paszkowski-Rogacz, M; Karpinski, J; Grass, T; Sonntag, J; Schneider, PM; Rodriguez-Muela, N; Knöfler, R; Takebe, T; Buchholz, F. Nature Communications. 2022; 13:422.

Selected

En masse organoid phenotyping informs metabolic-associated genetic susceptibility to NASH. Kimura, M; Iguchi, T; Iwasawa, K; Dunn, A; Thompson, WL; Yoneyama, Y; Chaturvedi, P; Zorn, AM; Wintzinger, M; Quattrocelli, M; Myers, RP; Subramanian, GM; Hwa, V; Takebe, T. Cell. 2022; 185:4216-4232.e16.

Selected

Mammalian enteral ventilation ameliorates respiratory failure. Okabe, R; Chen-Yoshikawa, TF; Yoneyama, Y; Yokoyama, Y; Tanaka, S; Yoshizawa, A; Thompson, WL; Kannan, G; Kobayashi, E; Date, H; Takebe, T. 2021; 2:773-783.e5.

Selected

Building consensus on definition and nomenclature of hepatic, pancreatic, and biliary organoids. Marsee, A; Roos, FJ M; Verstegen, MM A; Clevers, H; Vallier, L; Takebe, T; Huch, M; Peng, WC; Forbes, SJ; Lemaigre, F; Forbes, SJ; van der Laan, LJ W; van der Laan, LJ W; van der Laan, LJ W. Cell Stem Cell. 2021; 28:816-832.

Selected

High-Fidelity Drug-Induced Liver Injury Screen Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Organoids. Shinozawa, T; Kimura, M; Cai, Y; Saiki, N; Yoneyama, Y; Ouchi, R; Koike, H; Maezawa, M; Zhang, RR; Dunn, A; Lewis, K; Thompson, WL; Asai, A; Takebe, T. Gastroenterology. 2021; 160:831-846.e10.

Selected

Single cell transcriptomics identifies a signaling network coordinating endoderm and mesoderm diversification during foregut organogenesis. Han, L; Chaturvedi, P; Kishimoto, K; Koike, H; Nasr, T; Iwasawa, K; Giesbrecht, K; Witcher, PC; Eicher, A; Haines, L; Morimoto, M; Wells, JM; Takebe, T; Zorn, AM. Nature Communications. 2020; 11:4158.

Selected

Polygenic architecture informs potential vulnerability to drug-induced liver injury. Koido, M; Kawakami, E; Fukumura, J; Noguchi, Y; Ohori, M; Nio, Y; Nicoletti, P; Aithal, GP; Daly, AK; Watkins, PB; Anayama, H; Dragan, Y; Shinozawa, T; Takebe, T. Nature Medicine. 2020; 26:1541-1548.

Selected

Modelling human hepato-biliary-pancreatic organogenesis from the foregut-midgut boundary. Koike, H; Iwasawa, K; Ouchi, R; Maezawa, M; Giesbrecht, K; Saiki, N; Ferguson, A; Kimura, M; Thompson, WL; Wells, JM; Zorn, AM; Takebe, T. Nature. 2019; 574:112-116.

Selected

Modeling Steatohepatitis in Humans with Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Organoids. Ouchi, R; Togo, S; Kimura, M; Shinozawa, T; Koido, M; Koike, H; Thompson, W; Karns, RA; Mayhew, CN; McGrath, PS; Akazawa, C; Yoshikawa, HY; Wells, JM; Takebe, T. Cell Metabolism. 2019; 30:374-384.e6.

Selected

Organoids by design. Takebe, T; Wells, JM. Science. 2019; 364:956-959.

From the Blog

Takebe Receives Vilcek Foundation Award for Creative Promise
Organoids

Takebe Receives Vilcek Foundation Award for Creative Promise

Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD2/6/2024

Human Vascular Organoids Reveal Clues for a Potential COVID Treatment
Organoids

Human Vascular Organoids Reveal Clues for a Potential COVID Treatment

Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD10/5/2023

Why Type 2 Diabetes Leads to Liver Damage for Some, Not Others
Organoids

Why Type 2 Diabetes Leads to Liver Damage for Some, Not Others

Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD10/13/2022

POLYseq Tool Sharply Improves Barcoding in Single-Cell Analysis
Tools for Science

POLYseq Tool Sharply Improves Barcoding in Single-Cell Analysis

Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD8/26/2021