Biosketch

Yukiko Yamashita is Member of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Susan Lindquist Chair of Women in Science, also Professor of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 2014. She earned her Ph.D from Kyoto University, Japan, and conducted a postdoctoral fellowship with Minx Fuller at Stanford University (2001-2006). Awards include MacArthur Fellow (2011) and Tsuneko and Reiji Okazaki Award (2016). She is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of American Society for Cell Biology Fellow.

Research Interests

Germline cells (eggs and sperm) are the only cells that transmit the genetic information to the next generation, and have supported the continuation of multicellular life for the last 1.5 billion years. The mechanisms that enable the germline to transmit the genetic material across the evolutionary time scale, i.e., germline immortality, are poorly defined. With the overarching theme of investigating mechanisms that support germline immortality, we have studied the mechanism of asymmetric stem cell division, the biology of tandem repeat DNA, and how these mechanisms intersect with the processes of evolution. We aspire to understand how the mechanisms of germline immortality cause gradual changes in the genome, leading to speciation.

Membership Type

Member

Election Year

2025

Primary Section

Section 22: Cellular and Developmental Biology

Secondary Section

Section 26: Genetics