Dr. Shinichiro Ogawa joined the McEwen Stem Cell Institute in 2019 as a Principal Investigator. His research program is focused on developing cell- and tissue-based replacement therapies that can provide an alternative therapy to liver transplant for patients with liver failure.
Dr. Ogawa completed his PhD at Shinshu University School of Medicine in Nagano, Japan and his MD at the Tokyo Medical University in Tokyo, Japan. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Gordon Keller at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine prior to his appointment. Dr. Ogawa also holds an appointment as Professor at the Department of Surgery at Shinshu University School of Medicine in Japan.
In his research, he has developed methods to use hPSCs to generate liver progenitors (hepatoblasts), which can generate functional liver cells. He has used these progenitors to develop mature liver cells and bile duct epithelial cells, both of which have the characteristic properties of functional cells in the liver. In his work with the McEwen Stem Cell Institute, Dr. Ogawa is using hPSC-derived liver cells and organoids to assess restoration of liver function in an experimental model with the goal of developing treatments for liver failure. He is also using hPSC-derived bile duct epithelial cells to develop models to study Cystic Fibrosis Liver Disease and screen drugs for treatment.