Center for RNA Medicine (CRM), Aalborg University is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Shizuka Uchida as Professor (WSR) in Bioinformatics and RNA Computational Biology, effective August 1st, 2020. Before joining CRM, Dr. Uchida served as Associate Professor of Medicine at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in Biology and Ancient Greek in 1998 from Creighton University, USA, followed by a Master's in Bioinformatics from Japan Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (JAIST) in 2003, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from JAIST in 2007. Dr. Uchida received post-doctoral training in Developmental Biology in 2006-10 at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research (MPI-HLR), Germany, followed by a position as Group Leader at MPI-HLR, Germany, in 2010-12, and a position as Independent Junior Group Leader in 2012-16 at the Institute of Cardiovascular Regeneration, Centre for Molecular Medicine, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
Dr. Uchida is a world-leading scientist in bioinformatics and cardiovascular medicine with a proven track record in RNA computational biology, non-coding RNA research and epitranscriptomics. His research focuses on understanding the functions of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and RNA modification enzymes, especially A-to-I RNA editing enzymes (ADARs) in human disease using a combination of bioinformatics to ask novel questions and experimental biology to address new research questions. Dr. Uchida is Member of the International Society for Computational Biology and Fellow of the American Heart Association, and serves on the editorial boards of nine international journals. Dr. Uchida has published 63 peer-reviewed papers in international journals, including several papers in top-tier journals, such as Nature Medicine, Cell Stem Cell, Circulation and Circulation Research.
”I am excited to be appointed as Professor in Bioinformatics and RNA Computational Biology at CRM,” says Prof. Uchida and continues, “This position offers a great opportunity to expand our knowledge on RNA biology, especially focusing on long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and epitranscriptomics, which is an emerging area of study to understand the modifications of RNA molecules“.
Announcing the appointment, Prof. Kauppinen, Director of CRM said, “I am delighted to welcome Prof. Shizuka Uchida to join our team at the Center for RNA Medicine. Shizuka brings a wealth of experience and skills in bioinformatics, lncRNA research and epitranscriptomics to CRM. The appointment of Shizuka is an exciting development and a great opportunity for CRM to continue our research in non-coding RNA biology and RNA-targeted medicines. We very much look forward to working closely with Shizuka going forward”.
