Midori Ohta (Ota)
Research Scientist
Ph.D. University of Tokyo, Japan, 2012
M.S. University of Tokyo, Japan, 2008
B.S. Ochanomizu University, 2006
Research Scientist
Ph.D. University of Tokyo, Japan, 2012
M.S. University of Tokyo, Japan, 2008
B.S. Ochanomizu University, 2006
Since Midori studied starfish oocytes as an undergraduate at Ochanomizu University, her passion has been cell organelles, centrosomes and spindle pole bodies, that organize the microtubule network during cell division and development. Midori earned her Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo, where she studied the mechanisms of spindle pole body remodeling during meiotic differentiation. After her first postdoctoral work on centrosome duplication at the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima, she moved to the United States and conducted her second postdoctoral work on centrosome maturation and its role in spindle assembly at the University of California, San Diego. Since August 2022, she has been running her research team at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, where she is a Science and Technology Associate/Research Scientist. During her career, Midori has been working on various model systems including starfish, yeast, nematodes, and human cell culture to dissect fundamental mechanisms that control centrosomes whose abnormalities lead to cancer and developmental diseases.