Hereditary Genetics: Current Research

Tomoko Obara

Tomoko Obara
Department of Cell Biology
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, USA

Biography

Tomoko Obara completed her PhD studies on cloning and characterizing G-proteins from yeast at the University of Tokyo. She left Japan and moved to USA to change her research field. She started her postdoctoral training with Doris Herzlinger at Weil Medical College of Cornell University (USA) to study kidney organogenesis using mice and chicken. To further develop her interest in kidney development and to understand human kidney diseases using zebrafish, she moved to join Dr. Iain Drummond at Renal Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. In 2004, she was appointed as Assistant Professor in MetroHealth Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She moved her research group to Dept of Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center from 2009. She has record of successful and productive research projects in the field of kidney development and disease and an innovator in the development of model systems in kidney biomedical research.

Research Interest

Her research interest in kidney development and to understand human kidney diseases using zebrafish, mouse, Medaka, human genetics,  heart disease, ciliopathies)