Rio Sugimura

Dr. Rio Sugimura received his M.D. from Osaka University, Japan, in 2008, and his Ph.D. in Stem Cells and Regeneration from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, USA, in 2012. He has been trained at world-leading institutes, including Harvard Medical School and Kyoto University. He is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Hong Kong. Dr. Sugimura is a full faculty member of the Stem Cells & Regeneration Section in F1000Prime, a member of American Association of Immunologists (AAI), American Society of Hematology (ASH), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Association for Cancer Immunotherapy (CIMT), Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), International Society of Experimental Hematology (ISEH), International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS), the North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO), Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), and a co-founder of the medical branch of Kagakusha-Net. Dr. Sugimura is a recipient of the ASH Scholar Award, March of Dimes, Early Career Grant from Japanese Ministry, Genius Award from Young Hematologist Meeting in Japan, Takeda Science Foundation, iPS Academia Japan Foundation, SMRF Fellowship, Kanehara Memorial Foundation, and Uehara Memorial Foundation. Dr. Sugimura mastered grantsmanship at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Scientific Writing Retreat 2019. Dr. Sugimura supervised one postdoctoral fellow, one medical student, three Ph.D. students, two master students, and three undergraduate students.

Dr. Sugimura is an accomplished scientist, recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field of hematology and stem cell biology. He is interested in using single-cell barcoding technology to delineate single-cell lineage maps of blood/immune cells in human organoids and exploring druggable targets of anti-cancer immunity. His major contribution includes identification of the crucial cellular metabolisms that regulate blood stem cells (Sugimura, 2012. Cell), and exploitation of the genetic program to specify blood stem cells from human pluripotent stem cells (Sugimura, 2017. Nature). Before joining HKU, Dr. Sugimura established platforms of human immune cell-generating organoids (Ohta & Sugimura, 2019. JoVE) and organ-on-a-chip (Sugimura, 2020. Biomed. Microdevices). He has published more than 12 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, such as Nature, Cell, and Genes & Development, received 1,431 citations (Google Scholar). He is on the editorial board of Reprogramming and Differentiation.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Stowers Institute for Medical Research (2008 — 2012)
• Doctor of Medicine (MD) Osaka University (2002 — 2008)

Companies

• Assistant Professor The University of Hong Kong (2020)
• Assistant Professor HKUMed – The University of Hong Kong (2020)
• Visiting Professor Università di Pavia (2020 — 2020)
• Postdoctoral Researcher Kyoto University (2018 — 2020)
• Postdoctoral Researcher Boston Children's Hospital (2014 — 2018)
• Postdoctoral Researcher Harvard Medical School (2014 — 2018)
• PhD student Stowers Institute for Medical Research (2008 — 2014)