Rate My Professor Tatsuya Osaki

Tatsuya Osaki is a Research Scientist at the Picower Institute for Learning & Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He previously served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mechanobiology Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Osaki earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Tsukuba.

His research focuses on the development of complex in vitro neurovascular models, including the neuromuscular junction, to investigate neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He has utilized micro-engineered platforms incorporating muscle cells, endothelial cells, and motor neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, applying mechanical stresses relevant to contractile tissues. A key publication is the 2018 paper “Microphysiological 3D model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) from human iPS-derived muscle cells and optogenetic motor neurons” in Science Advances. Osaki has contributed to additional work on vascularized microfluidic organ-chips and engineered 3D vascular and neuronal networks.