Effective March 1, Dr. Akitsu Hotta will join the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) faculty as assistant professor and principal investigator. Formerly of the Ontario Human Induced pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cell Facility, Hotta represents the 18th laboratory head appointment at the Center.

Hotta graduated from Nagoya University with a degree in bioengineering and obtained his M.S. and Ph. D. from the same institution in 2006 with a focus on biofunctional engineering. He next moved to Toronto to take a postdoctoral fellowship at the Sick Children's Hospital, and began serving a dual appointment at the Ontario Human iPS Cell Facility in 2008.

Hotta's work has focused on methods for gene delivery and transcriptional regulation, and has been studying the development highly reproducible techniques for selecting pluripotent iPS cells. At CiRA, he will put his experience to work in seeking to develop methods for selecting and generating safe iPS cells, and novel iPS-based gene therapy approaches.