Masaaki Hirata, MD/PhD

Masaaki Hirata worked as an abdominal surgeon, including performing liver transplants, and conducted research about transplant immunology in the department of Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Surgery and Transplantation at Kyoto University in Japan. He earned a PhD for his research using a rodent model with microsurgery techniques to study the effects of novel immunosuppressive strategies on liver regeneration following partial liver transplantation. In January 2024, he joined Dr. Reed's Lab as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on HLA immunology in organ transplantation. His current project aims to elucidate the mechanisms of graft injury caused by anti-HLA antibodies that lead to antibody-mediated rejection.