Yoshiki Sasai
Japanese physician, developmental biologist, stem-cell researcher and university teacher (1962–2014)
Yoshiki Sasai (笹井 芳樹, Sasai Yoshiki; 5 March 1962 – 5 August 2014) was a Japanese stem cell biologist. He developed methods to guide human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into forming brain cortex, eyes (optic cups), and other organs in tissue culture. Sasai worked at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, and was Director of the Laboratory for Organogenesis and Neurogenesis. Following his involvement in the 2014 STAP cell controversy, Sasai was found dead at Riken from an apparent suicide.
Early life and education
Yoshiki Sasai was born in 1962 in Hyogo, Japan. He received his medical degree from Kyoto University's School of Medicine in 1986. In 1993 Sasai was awarded a PhD from the Kyoto University School of Medicine, and served a residency at Kobe Municipal General Hospital.
Career
Sasai worked as a research fellow at Edward M. De Robertis's laboratory at UCLA School of Medicine until 1996. Sasai became an associate professor at Kyoto University in 1996, and a full professor in 1998. In 2003 he moved to the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology as Director of the organogenesis and neurogenesis group.
“Yoshiki Sasai” enters the record as japanese physician, developmental biologist, stem-cell researcher and university teacher (1962–2014). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Yoshiki, Sasai and Japanese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2272131. VIAF identifies the subject as 256500020. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 2014, 1986 and 1993.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yoshiki Sasai” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.