Hiroki Akizawa

Hiroki Akizawa received his Ph.D. in agriculture from Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan, in 2020. In his Ph.D. training, he studied preimplantation embryonic development in cattle, mainly focusing on cell differentiation. Under the supervision of Dr. Manabu Kawahara, Hiroki developed a new method to extend the cultural period of the bovine blastocyst in vitro that allowed him to precisely define the timing of the emergence of three embryonic layers in cattle. Currently, Hiroki is exploring the regulatory mechanisms underlying calcium oscillations on fertilization in mice. IP3 receptor signaling is one of his main focuses where he is working to describe the potential involvement of other divalent cations, including Zinc. His research is funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.