HIROFUMI SHINTAKU, DR. ENG.

Professor, Institute for Life and Medical Sciences, Kyoto University

Dr. Hirofumi Shintaku is a Professor at the Institute for Life and Medical Sciences (LiMe),  Kyoto University. 
He studied Mechanical Engineering at Kyoto University in Japan, receiving his undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. degrees in 2002, 2004, and 2006, respectively. From 2006-2012, he worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering at Osaka University in Japan.  From 2012 to 2018, he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Micro Engineering at Kyoto University. From 2012 to 2015, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University in the United States and collaborated with Professor Juan G. Santiago.

 From 2018 to 2025, he served as a RIKEN Hakubi Team leader at RIKEN, where he initiated his research group and pioneered single-cell RNA-sequencing approaches, including SINC-seq, ELASTomics, and live embryonic transcriptomics. 

 Since 2023, he has been directing the Nano Bioengineering Laboratory at LiMe, Kyoto University.

 He was awarded the Best Paper Award from JSAEM (2006), the IIP Division Award for Young Engineer from JSME(’09), JSME Young Engineers Award (2010), Osaka University Achievement Award (2011),  Certificate of Merit for Micro-Nano Science and Technology Division of JSME (’14), the Micro-Nano Engineering Excellent Paper Certificate of Merit (2022), Nakatani Encouragement Award (2025), RIKEN Biho Award (2025).
His current research activities include developing microfluidic systems for single-cell analyses and measurement techniques of fluid dynamics in nano/micro-confined spaces.