The Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Takafumi Kimura as a new principal investigator, bringing the number of PIs at the institute to 17.

After graduating from Nara Prefectural School of Medicine, Dr. Kimura specialized in clinical research into blood diagnostics at sites including Osaka University Hospital, before turning his focus to human hematopoietic stem cells at Kyoto University School of Medicine, Kansai Medical University, and the Japan Red Cross Osaka Blood Center.

At CiRA, Dr. Kimura will join the Department of Regulatory Science, which is led by CiRA Director Shinya Yamanaka, and will work toward accelerating the adoption of the principles of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) at the institute, and to develop and drive the system implementation of the cell processing center, a key element in enabling preclinical studies using iPS cells.

He comments, "We're looking forward to a quick launch for the management of the Facility for iPS Cell Therapy (FiT), and associated social support systems."