Affiliation: National Center for Child Health and Development

Dr. Watanabe worked on germ cells in the new world monkey common marmoset, a model organism for studying human biology. He focused on primate spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). The SSC system in primates is largely different from that in mice. Common marmosets are very useful for studying primate-specific mechanisms. He established a marmoset research group at National Center for Child Health and Development (NCCHD). Before joining NCCHD, he acquired techniques for handling marmosets and generation of genetically modified marmosets at the Central Institute of Experimental Animals, where marmoset has been studied for a long time since the 1980s. Dr. Watanabe made a transition from mouse research to primate research. In mice, Dr. Watanabe studied a small RNA-based retrotransposon suppression system (piRNA pathway) in mouse germ cells. In these studies, he published several papers in prestigious journals, including Nature and Science. Dr. Watanabe obtained a BSc from The University of Tokyo (2003) and a Ph.D. in Graduate School for advanced study (2009), and worked at several research institutes including the National Institute of Genetics (research associate, 2009-2010), Yale University (research fellow, 2010-2016), and Kyoto University (assistant professor 2016-2017).