Affiliation: Keio University School of Medicine, Department of Dentistry and Oral Surgery

Dr. Takehito Ouchi (Ochi) completed his DDS from Tokyo Dental College, Japan in 2011. He researched pluripotent stem cells and somatic stem cells under the guidance of Dr. Taneaki Nakagawa and Dr. Hideyuki Okano at Keio University, where he was awarded his PhD in Dentistry and Oral Surgery in 2017. His thesis was on differentiation ability of neural crest-like cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells. He was interested in the fact that neural crest-like cells have a mesenchymal stem cell character, and applied this potential to bone or nerve regeneration. After he finished his PhD course in 2017, he joined and collaborated on several basic and clinical studies. His striking finding in that period was identifying mesenchymal stem cells in spindle cell carcinoma, which is a subtype of oral squamous cell carcinoma, and suggesting precision medicine based on stem cell research.

His strong curiosity accelerated his pursuit of the elucidation of diversity of stem cells. He joined Developmental Biology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine as a research fellow from 2019.

Now, Dr. Ouchi is a member of Center for Skeletal Research, which is organized by the Endocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. He serves as a member of a skeletal workshop committee.