Recognizing Plant Cell authors: Ryu J. Iwatate

Ryu J. Iwatate, co-first author of Covalent Self-labeling of Tagged Proteins with Chemical Fluorescent Dyes in BY-2 Cells and Arabidopsis Seedlings

Current Position:  Medical student, School of Medicine, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

Education: Ph.D. in Medicine, Master of Medical Sciences and Bachelor of Engineering at the University of Tokyo, Japan

Non-scientific interests: watching Rugby, playing the cello, balcony gardening, and hot springs

Brief bio: I started off my research career as an engineer for image processing of MRI. For my Ph.D., I worked on intraoperative multicolour fluorescence and photoacoustic imaging of cancer using small-molecule-based fluorescent probes. In 2017, I moved to Nagoya to start my medical school, and subsequently joined Frommer-Nakamura group at WPI-ITbM as a part-time postdoc. I enjoyed my brief spell as a plant scientist, but I will be finishing medical school in March 2021, and taking some time off research for residency. I am still interested in researching molecular imaging, so I can hopefully come back to research some more!