Kikuë Tachibana (born 1978 in

Graz Graz () is the capital of the Austrian Federal states of Austria, federal state of Styria and the List of cities and towns in Austria, second-largest city in Austria, after Vienna. On 1 January 2025, Graz had a population of 306,068 (343,461 inc ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

) is a Japanese-Austrian

molecular biologist Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) in Martinsried, Germany. Formerly, she was a group leader at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) in Vienna, Austria.

Education and career

Tachibana was educated in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, and the UK. She obtained her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

working on the

cell cycle The cell cycle, or cell-division cycle, is the sequential series of events that take place in a cell (biology), cell that causes it to divide into two daughter cells. These events include the growth of the cell, duplication of its DNA (DNA re ...

and cancer formation in the group of Ron Laskey at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, UK. She later joined the lab of

Kim Nasmyth Kim Ashley Nasmyth (born 18 October 1952) is an English geneticist, the Whitley Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, former scientific director of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathol ...

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, UK as a

post-doc A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

, where she did pioneering work on the role of the protein

cohesin Cohesin is a protein complex that mediates Establishment of sister chromatid cohesion, sister chromatid cohesion, homologous recombination, and Topologically associating domain, DNA looping. Cohesin is formed of SMC3, SMC1A, SMC1, RAD21, SCC1 an ...

in female

mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

germ cell A germ cell is any cell that gives rise to the gametes of an organism that reproduces sexually. In many animals, the germ cells originate in the primitive streak and migrate via the gut of an embryo to the developing gonads. There, they unde ...

s. In November 2011 she joined IMBA as a group leader, where she investigates totipotency in mouse oocytes and zygotes as well as the role of maternal aging on

egg cell The egg cell or ovum (: ova) is the female Reproduction, reproductive cell, or gamete, in most anisogamous organisms (organisms that reproduce sexually with a larger, female gamete and a smaller, male one). The term is used when the female game ...

health using mouse as a model system.

Awards and honours

In 2017, Tachibana was awarded the Walter Flemming medal. In 2018, she received the Förderpreis der Stadt Wien, an award from the city of

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

for outstanding scientific work.

Selected publications

* Tachibana-Konwalski, Kikuë (March 2017)
"Single-nucleus Hi-C reveals unique chromatin reorganization at oocyte-to-zygote transition"
''Nature.'' 544 110-114. This article has been cited 279 times according to

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, .
Google Scholar Author page, Accessed March 27, 2020 *Tachibana-Konwalski, Kikuë (February 2016).
Chromosome Cohesion Established by Rec8-Cohesin in Fetal Oocytes Is Maintained without Detectable Turnover in Oocytes Arrested for Months in Mice."
''Current Biology''. 26 5, 678-685.

References

External links

Tachibana lab web page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tachibana, Kikue 1978 births Living people Austrian women biologists Austrian molecular biologists Max Planck Institute directors