Cantas Alev

Professor

Professor Cantas Alev is a Principal Investigator and Tenured Full Professor at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Biology (ASHBi), Kyoto University, where he leads an international team studying early human embryonic development using stem cell-based models. His research focuses on embryogenesis, organogenesis, disease mechanisms, and evolutionary processes.
Professor Alev earned his M.D and Ph.D from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Center for Developmental Biology (RIKEN CDB) in the laboratory of Dr. Guojun Sheng, focusing on gastrulation and post-gastrulation development, particularly mesoderm induction and patterning. During his subsequent position at the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, he applied his developmental biology expertise to establish and study pluripotent stem cell-based models of human mesoderm development and differentiation, including in vitro models of the segmentation clock and spine diseases. He later established his laboratory at ASHBi, Kyoto University, where he investigates multiple aspects of early human and primate embryonic development using stem cell-based model systems. His work contributes to regenerative medicine, disease modeling, and the development of novel therapies.

Gil Daniel Bregieiro Carraco

Program-Specific Researcher

Gil obtained his PhD in Mechanisms of Disease and Regenerative Medicine from the University of Algarve, Portugal. His research focused on developmental biology, specifically investigating the timing of the embryonic clock across different tissues and organisms. Following his PhD and a brief postdoctoral position in the same field, he joined the Alev Lab at ASHBi, Kyoto University, in January 2024.

Rolf Ericsson

Program-Specific Researcher

Rolf obtained his PhD in evolutionary developmental biology at Uppsala University, Sweden in 2003, before doing postdocs at CDB-RIKEN in Kobe, Japan; Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia; the Natural History Museum in London, UK; Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic; NCBS in Bangalore, India; and Cambridge University in the UK. He joined the Alev Lab in autumn 2022.

Sofiane Hamidi

Program-Specific Researcher

Sofiane obtained his PhD in Biotechnologies from the University of Paris (formerly Paris Diderot University), France. He has worked with pluripotent stem cells for more than 15 years in various contexts, ranging from cell-based therapies for heart failure and modeling hematological malignancies to studying early embryonic development. After several years in the private sector, he undertook postdoctoral training at Kumamoto University before joining the Alev Lab at Kyoto University.

Keun-Tae Kim

Program-Specific Researcher

Keun-Tae obtained his PhD in Stem Cell Biology from Sogang University, Republic of Korea, in August 2020. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, from 2020 to 2022. Following a visiting research period at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA) in Vienna in 2022, he joined the Alev Lab in January 2023.

Seongmin Kim

Program-Specific Researcher

Seong-Min obtained her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Seoul National University, Republic of Korea, in August 2024. During her doctoral studies, she investigated signaling pathways, metabolism, and epigenetics in pre- and peri-implantation embryo development using mouse and human ESCs/iPSCs. After a visiting research period at the Alev Lab at ASHBi in 2023, she joined the Alev Lab in September 2024 as a postdoctoral researcher.

Sirajam Munira

Program-Specific Researcher

Sirajam obtained her PhD from Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, where she investigated the mechanisms of cell cycle regulation leading to suppression of cell proliferation in cancer cells. She later joined the Alev Lab at ASHBi, Kyoto University, to enhance her knowledge and expertise in stem cell biology and organogenesis.

Amel Nasri

Program-Specific Researcher

Amel obtained her PhD in Stem Cell Biology from the Institute of Regenerative Medicine and Biotherapy at the University of Montpellier, France. Her research focused on the role of lung mesenchyme during bronchial epithelium development derived from induced pluripotent stem cells and the effects of air pollution. She joined the Alev Lab at ASHBi, Kyoto University, in January 2024.

Nick Younger

Program-Specific Researcher

Nick holds a BSc in Human Embryology and a PhD in Genetics and Molecular Medicine. Since 2019, he has undertaken postdoctoral research focusing first on mechanisms of human liver regeneration with Professor Neil Henderson, and then on mechanisms of enhancer combinatorial logic with Dr. Hannah Long. He is currently working on advanced embryo models of kidney development in the labs of Professor Jamie Davies at the University of Edinburgh and Professor Cantas Alev at Kyoto University.

Yi Zhang

Ph.D. student

Yi Zhang obtained her master's degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she conducted research in Professor Jason Spence's lab. Through this work, she developed a keen interest in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, which led her to join the Alev Lab for her PhD studies.

Mert Akgunduz

Assistant Researcher

Mert completed his master's degree in biology from the University of Munich (LMU) in Germany, where he focused on single-cell transcriptomics analysis for his thesis. He was involved in multiple internships and research courses where he gained experience in developing synthetic embryo models and hiPSCs differentiation. He joined the Alev Lab to pursue his passion for stem cell and developmental biology during his PhD studies.

Jiwon Bu

Master Student

Jiwon completed her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences at Imperial College London. She joined the Alev Lab in 2023 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in medical science at Kyoto University. Her research interests include the in vitro recapitulation of gastrulation and the use of multiomic analysis tools to investigate underlying molecular mechanisms.

Viet Qui Le

Master Student

Qui Le obtained his bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary biology from Maastricht University in Limburg, the Netherlands. He completed his bachelor's research under the supervision of Professor Cantas Alev at ASHBi, Kyoto University, focusing on image-based quantification of in vitro embryo models. Qui Le is particularly interested in addressing the challenge of managing and interpreting the increasing amount of biological data, which motivates his desire to pursue a master's degree. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, watching movies, and getting lost in nature.

Mensura Feray Cosar

Master Student

Mensura Feray completed her Bachelor of Science at Istanbul Technical University in the Molecular Biology and Genetics department. She participated in internships and international undergraduate competitions focusing on in vitro embryo models and mesenchymal stem cell pretreatment effects. She joined the Alev Lab in April 2024 to study differences in evolutionary development as a master's student. She is particularly interested in evolutionarily conserved molecular interactions during development.