Rate My Professor Masayuki Yamashita

Professor Masayuki Yamashita is a physician-scientist at The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo. He earned his M.D. from The University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine in 2008 and his Ph.D. in Medicine from Keio University School of Medicine in 2014. Following postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco and Columbia University, he joined The University of Tokyo as an Assistant Professor in 2019.

His research focuses on hematology and stem cell biology, with particular emphasis on the roles of programmed cell death pathways in hematopoietic stem cell integrity and aging. Key contributions include studies on non-necroptotic functions of MLKL in damaging mitochondria and promoting hematopoietic stem cell aging, published in Nature Communications in 2026. He has also investigated clusterin expression as a marker of aging in hematopoietic stem cells and mechanisms of stem cell rejuvenation in young bone marrow niches. Yamashita maintains affiliations with The University of Tokyo while serving as Assistant Member in the Department of Hematology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.