Rate My Professor Kosuke Yusa

Professor Kosuke Yusa is a faculty member in the Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto University, where he serves as Professor in the Laboratory of Stem Cell Genetics at the Institute for Life and Medical Sciences. He joined Kyoto University in 2018 after serving as Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute from 2012 to 2018, following postdoctoral work there from 2007 to 2012. He earned a BSc in Bioengineering from Osaka University in 1999, an MSc in Agricultural Science from the University of Tokyo in 2001, and a PhD in Medicine from Osaka University in 2005.

His research centers on the development and application of genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 knockout screening methods to investigate stem cell biology and oncology. Key contributions include the 2014 publication of a lentiviral CRISPR guide RNA library for recessive genetic screening in mammalian cells, published in Nature Biotechnology. Current work examines molecular mechanisms of pluripotency maintenance and differentiation in human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells, as well as genetic dependencies and drug responses in cancer cells, with the goal of advancing regenerative medicine and cancer therapies. He has held appointments including JSPS Special Researcher and Overseas Research Fellow positions earlier in his career.