Members
As of Apr. 1, 2024
Faculty
Professor | Kaori Muto, Ph.D. |
Associate Professor | Izen Ri, Ph.D. |
Project Research Fellow | Akiko Nagai, Ph.D. |
Project Research Fellow | Yukitaka Kiya, Ph.D. |
Project Research Fellow | Saori Watanabe, Ph.D. |
Project Research Fellow | Masahiro Kitao, Ph.D. |
Project Research Fellow | Junichi Kawata, Ph.D. |
Project Research Fellow | Hiroshi Iida, Ph.D. |
Administrators
Academic Support Staff | Kimie Takeuchi |
Academic Support Staff | Takako Yamanishi |
Academic Support Staff | Natsuko Nishimura |
Academic Support Staff | Kyoko Mimura, M.A. |
Students
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, PhD Course | Mayumi Kusunose, M.A., M.B.E. |
Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies Cultural and Human Information Studies Course, PhD Course | Momoko Sato, M.A. |
Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies Cultural and Human Information Studies Course, PhD Course | Kaori Kawai, M.A. |
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, PhD Course | Miku Shimasaki, M.S. |
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, PhD Course | Ryoko Matsuyama M.S. |
Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies Cultural and Human Information Studies Course, Master Course | Kintei Ko |
Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies Cultural and Human Information Studies Course, Master Course | Ayako Murakami M.A. |
Visiting Researchers
Director, The Institute of Seizon and Life Sciences (ISLS) | Kiichiro Tsutani, M.D., Ph.D. |
Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University | Yusuke Inoue, Ph.D., M.P.H. |
Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Soka University | Akiko Funabashi, Ph.D. |
Lecturer, School of Law, Waseda University | Kana Harada, Ph.D. |
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency | Aki Kitabayashi, Ph.D. |
Kaori Muto
Her original background is sociology of medicine and family. Her research interests are ethical, legal and social implication of medical genomics and stem cell research. She has worked with advocacy groups of rare diseases such as Familial Amioloid Polineuropathy and Huntington's Disease. She also explores living liver donations and family values in Japan. She serves as a Director of the Office of Research Ethics at the IMSUT.
【Education】
Ph.D. International Community Health, Graduate School of International Health, The University of Tokyo (2002)
M.A. Division of Humanities, Keio University (1995)
B.A. Department of Humanities and Social Science, Keio University (1993)
【Professional Employment】
Professor, Department of Public Policy, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo (2013 )
Associate Professor, Department of Public Policy, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo (2007 )
Lecturer, Department of Health Sciences, Shinshu University (2002- 2007)
Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Community Health, Brown University (2000-2002)
Research Associate, Health Care Science Institute (1997- 2000)
Izen Ri
Her background is in medical sociology and bioethics. Her main interests include patient and family communication related to various kinds of medicine and medical investigation. She has participated in social science research into assisted reproductive technology (donor-conceived children), birth cohort studies, and hereditary diseases. Currently, she investigates the impact on our society of advances in genome analysis, ethical issues in research development of early-prediction and preventive interventions, as well as efforts to reflect the perspectives of patients and the public.
【Education】
Ph.D. Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo (2020)
M.A. Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo (2016)
B.A. Department of Sociology, Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo (2014)
【Professional Employment】
Assistant Professor, Department of Public Policy, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo (2021- present)
Project Research Fellow, Department of Public Policy, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo (2019-2020)
Research Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (2016-2019)
Akiko Nagai
She majored in Psychology at university, and she studied public health and epidemiology in graduate school. She studied specifically public attitudes toward genetic testing. She is also interested in science communication.
【Education】
Ph.D. - Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering University of Yamanashi (2009)
【Professional Employment】
Research Resident, Imperial Gift Foundation Boshi-Aiiku-Kai (2009 -2012)
Research Fellow, Department of Public Policy, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo (2012 -)
Yukitaka Kiya
Yukitaka Kiya has studied the experiences of patients and carriers of chronic illness and hereditary disease. In particular, he examined issues such as genetic risk, the disclosure caused, and the risk it poses for the next generation. In addition to continuing his previous research, he is interested in the development of medical research and policy.
【Education】
M.A. Graduate School of Sociology, Hosei University
B.A. Department of International Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, Dokkyo University
【Employment】
Project Research Fellow, Department of Public Policy, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo (2019 - present)
Saori Watanabe
Saori Watanabe is a sociologist specializing in research on Rare Diseases and Medicine. The title of her Ph.D. thesis is "A Study on Rare Diseases Policy in Japan: Public Expenditure Medical Care by a Diseases-Category-Based Model." She has been pursuing a historical and sociological analysis of rare diseases policy in post-war Japan and other countries.
Currently, she also conducts qualitative and quantitative surveys on ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI ) of rare diseases: one on patient involvement in biomedical research based on genetic citizenship and the other on SES (socio-economic status) of patients with rare diseases.
【Education】
Ph.D. – Sociology, Meiji Gakuin University (2018)
【Employment】
2021.4–Present: Project Research Fellow, Department of Public Policy, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
2018.4–2021.3: Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (PD), RCAST, The University of Tokyo
2015.4-2018.3: Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (DC1), Meiji Gakuin University
Masahiro Kitao
Kitao studies the criminal and medical law in Japan, comparing with those in German/Dutch speaking countries and England & Wales; whose interest is mainly aimed at the crime of manslaughter, for the moment in particular on the justification through the deliberate risk-taking by its victims themselves, which indeed might appear to be one of the classic or even some outdated themes in the theories of criminal law, but must be rather the modern and actual issue as to the capability to stabilise and propel the possible practical cases such as the urgent clinical trials for the new vaccines or medicaments under the coming pandemic.
【Education】
Ph.D. in Law, Graduate School of Law, Waseda University (2020)
LL.M., Graduate School of Law, Waseda University (2015)
LL.B., School of Law, Waseda University (2013)
【Employment】
Assistant Professor, Institute for Advanced Social Sciences, Waseda University (2021-2023)
Kimie Takeuchi
She aims to provide a pleasant working atmosphere to support others as they create effective research.
Kyoko Mimura
Kyoko is an academic support staff who is also working on her own research in gender analysis of medical technology. She is interested in how artefacts used in everyday life or in medical practices are developed and used with certain political intentions/assumptions and how these may become exhibited in the practice.
【Favourites】
Bouldering, Capoeira, Music
【Education】
M.A. Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology
B.Sc. History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, University College London
Junichi Kawata
Junichi Kawata is a medical sociologist researching cancer survivorship. He has been conducting research on the issues of life after cancer and the identities constructed while living with cancer. He is the vice president of the Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patient’s Association and is interested in the social interaction between medical research and policy as well as the patients who participate in it.
【Education】
Mh.Sc., Human science, Taisho University.
Bh.Sc., Human Life and Environment Studies, Taisho University.
Hiroshi Iida
He is conducting research on ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) that arise from the spread of genetic information in society due to the progress of genomic medicine, with a particular focus on the fields of life insurance and labor. He endeavors to make his 28 years experience at foreign insurance company useful to his research.
【Education】
Ph.D. Graduate School of Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo (2023)
M.A. Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo (2019)
Mayumi Kusunose
Mayumi Kusunose is a Ph.D. student at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo. Prior to entering the doctoral program, her research focused on the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) relevant to regenerative medicine, which motivated her to pursue the study of research ethics. Her current research interests focus on the ELSI of Data Science and Benefit Sharing. She is also an ethicist and provides clinical and research ethics consultation in Japan.
【Education】
Ph.D. student, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
M.A in Bioethics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA)
M.A. in Humanities and Social Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kochi University (Kochi, Japan)
B.A. Integrated Science program, Department of Education, Kochi University (Kochi, Japan)
【Professional Employment】
2019–present: Senior Technical Scientist, Center for Integrative
Medical Sciences, RIKEN (Yokohama, Japan)
2017–2019: Senior Technical Scientist, Cluster for Science
Technology and Innovation Hub, RIKEN (Yokohama, Japan)
2013–2017: Project Researcher, Department of Public Policy, The
Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
Momoko Sato
Momoko Sato graduated in Interdisciplinary Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences Senior Division, at the University of Tokyo in 2015, and received her master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Information Studies from the same university in 2017. Her main research interest is ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) of genomic research on ethnic minorities.
Kaori Kawai
Her research focuses on genetic risk as well as marriage and childbearing decisions. For her master's thesis, She conducted a qualitative study on individuals with Huntington's disease, an autosomal dominant genetic disorder, and their supportive health care providers.
【Biography】
Graduated from Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Faculty of Foreign Languages.
M.A. (Interdisciplinary Information Studies), Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo.
Present: Enrolled in the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo.
Ryoko Matsuyama
2022: B.A. in International Liberal Studies at the School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University
Present: Enrolled in a Master’s Program at the Biomedical Innovation Policy Group, Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
She has enrolled in a master's program at Muto Lab last year, and being a part of this lab has been an exciting and enriching experience. She endeavors to remain fully engaged in her research and has a fulfilling graduate student life.
Kintei Ko
【Education】
・B.A. School of Japanese and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University(2021)
・Currently pursuing a Master's degree in the Cultural and Human Information Studies Course at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies(GSII), the University of Tokyo.
【Self Introduction】
I have joined Muto Lab in April 2023. My research interests lie in women's reproductive and parenting choices, with a specific focus on the use of assisted reproductive technology by unmarried women for pregnancy and childbirth.I am excited to conduct research in this area from a feminist perspective. As a passionate learner,I am thrilled to not only contribute to the academic community but also to actively engage in meaningful discussions with my colleagues in the lab.
Ayako Murakami M.A.
She has enrolled in a master's program at Muto Laboratory since 2024. Her main research interest is decision-making support for elderly persons without family.
【Education】
M.A. student, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo
M.A. in Graduate School of Art and Letters, Tohoku University
B.A. in Faculty of Letters, Gakushuin University