Dr. Atsuo Sasaki is a scientist working to decode the cellular dynamics. His research focuses on the role that Guanosine-5’-triphosphate (GTP) metabolism plays in human diseases, such as brain tumor.

Sasaki turned his attention to GTP metabolism, a little-studied subject, after discovering unexpected connection between GTP levels and cell conditions during his postdoctoral research on Ras, a small GTPase, at Harvard University. Since 2012, his GTP sensor project has received over $3 million in competitive grants. Sasaki is the author of >50 peer-reviewed research papers, which have been cited more than 10,800 times as of January 2020 with H-index of 40. Sasaki is the 2016 recipient of the Health Research Rising Star Award of University of Cincinnati College of Medicine,  2017 Health Care Heroes winner, 2019 Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) Bridge Award. A special TV program (28 min) for Sasaki's research has been broadcasted by Japanese public TV station, NHK WORLD (on-demand video available).  
 
Originally from Hiroshima, Japan, Sasaki holds a bachelor of science degree in applied biological science from Tokyo University of Science (1995), a master’s degree in biology from Hiroshima University (1997) and a Ph.D. in medicine from Kurume Medical University (2001).