Trainees

Akihiro Yamashita
University of Calgary
Post Doctoral Fellow    
Email: ayamashi@ucalgary.ca

Dr. Akihiro Yamashita is a Japanese DDS-PhD interested in skeletal regeneration for the purpose of combating diseases which significantly impact his profession.  He has extensive experience with deriving, culturing, and differentiating embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into various cell types.  Due to his professional interest, he has particular expertise with osteoblast and chondrocyte differentiation.  He graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry at Hiroshima University in 2001.  As a maxillofacial resident, he engaged in dental treatment for 2 years in the Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital.  Later, as a PhD student at Shiga University’s Research Center for Animal Science, he carried out a 4 year study of monkey ESCs relating to osteoblast and adipocyte differentiation using gene silencing. In 2007, Dr. Yamashita joined the Rancourt lab and integrated himself into a multidisciplinary stem cell differentiation/transplantation project.  In Calgary, his expertise has expanded into chondrocyte differentiation.  Through his current research project, he hopes to develop methods to transplant ESC bone and cartilage derivatives into animal and eventually human patients.