Prof. Tomoaki Tanaka, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, and Director, Research Institute of Disaster Medicine, Chiba University, Japan
Prof. Tomoaki Tanaka is a physician–scientist and professor of Molecular Diagnosis whose work bridges chromatin biology, oncology, endocrine and metabolic diseases, and disaster medicine. Trained as an internist/endocrinologist, he earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at Chiba University, held research appointments at the National Cancer Center Research Institute (Japan), and completed postdoctoral and research associate positions in the Carol Prives Laboratory in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University. He joined Chiba University’s faculty in 2007 and has led the Department of Molecular Diagnosis as Professor since 2016; in 2023 he was appointed Director of the Research Institute of Disaster Medicine (R-IDM).
Prof. Tanaka’s research interests include transcriptional and epigenomic control centered on the tumor suppressor p53 and lineage-defining factors (e.g., GATA3, PU.1). His laboratory combines next-generation sequencing, cutting-edge approaches such as single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, and biochemistry to identify chromatinacting regulators. He has applied these tools to endocrine organ differentiation from ES cells and to disease mechanisms in cancer and endocrine disorders. Representative publications include Cell (2000, 2007), Nature Immunology (2018), Immunity (2018), Nature Communications (2016, 2022, 2025, in press), PNAS (2010, 2015, 2018, 2025), Cancer Research (2022), Communications Biology (2022), and Lancet (2024). As Director of R-IDM, he advances an integrated, resilience-driven program that addresses not only acute disaster impacts but also long-term secondary health burdens—promoting evidence-based preparedness, technology-enabled continuity of care, and community-anchored recovery for complex events such as pandemics and mega-earthquakes.