Keiko Torii

Keiko Torii (鳥居 啓子, Torii Keiko) is a Japanese plant scientist and academic teaching at the University of Texas at Austin as of September 2019.

Keiko Torii
Born1965 (age 57–58)
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Alma materUniversity of Tsukuba (Master of Science)
University of Tsukuba (PhD)
AwardsSaruhashi Prize(2015)
Asahi Prize (2021) [1]
Scientific career
FieldsResearch of Plant development, Stem cell
InstitutionsUniversity of Texas at Austin
Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules, Nagoya University
Websitewww.plant-stomata.org ( Keiko Torii Laboratory, University of Texas at Austin )

Research

Torii researches stem cell maintenance and the cell-to-cell communication required to correctly pattern tissue during development, focusing on stomatal development as a model.[2] Her work on cell-to-cell communication has also focused on the mechanisms that determine organ size and shape in plants.[3] Her achievements include discoveries of key signaling ligands, receptor kinase signaling pathways, and master regulatory transcription factors that specify stomatal patterning and differentiation.[4] Her research and collaboration ranges from cell-cell signaling in plant development to maintenance of lineage-specific stem cells, influence of extrinsic peptide and chemical signals in cell-fate decisions and patterning, and creation of an artificial ligand–receptor system to manipulate plant developmental signaling.[4] Through her works, she aims to elucidate how functional tissue patterns are generated using cross-disciplinary approaches.[3] Together with organic chemists and molecular structural theoreticians, she is developing artificial and orthogonal ligand-receptor systems with novel activities to understand and manipulate signaling pathways controlling plant development.[3]

Early life

Torii was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1965. She completed her B.S. (1987) and M.S. (1989) degrees in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Institute of Biological Sciences at University of Tsukuba, Japan.[5] She also obtained a PhD (1993) from the University of Tsukuba, researching seed development in carrots.[6]

Career

She became a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology (formerly Botany), University of Washington in 1999 and Associate Professor in 2005. Then, in 2009, she was promoted to Full Professor at Department of Biology with an affiliate faculty position at the Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, University of Washington. She was also a PRESTO researcher, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Japan (2009–2012).[7] In 2011, she received the title of College of Arts and Sciences Endowed Distinguished Professor of Biology, University of Washington (2011-2019), and has also been an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2011–present).[2] In September 2019, she has relocated to the University of Texas at Austin, where she is a Professor of Molecular Biosciences and holds the Johnson & Johnson Centennial Chair in Plant Cell Biology.[3] She keeps her position in University of Washington as Affiliate Professor, and, since 2013, she has been an Oversea Principal Investigator and Visiting Professor at the World Premier Research Initiative, Institute of Transformative Biomolecules (WPI-ITbM), Nagoya University, Japan.[8]

She has provided extensive service on editorial and advisory boards and in editorial roles for journals, including Plant Physiology and as Editor-in-chief of The Arabidopsis Book.[4]

Awards and honors

Publications[3]

References
  1. "THE ASAHI PRIZE". The Asahi Shimbun Company. Archived from the original on 2022-01-06. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  2. "Keiko U. Torii". HHMI.org.
  3. "Torii, Keiko – Molecular Biosciences – CNS Directory". cns.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  4. "Stephen Hales Prize 2023 Winner: Keiko Torii". Awards & Funding. The American Society of Plant Biologists. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  5. Torii, Keiko U. (November 2013). "Keiko U. Torii". Current Biology. 23 (21): R943–R944. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.08.032. PMID 24354015. S2CID 5156949.
  6. Keiko, Torii (1993). Cell differentiation of the outermost cells of developing endosperm in carrot (Thesis) (in Japanese). hdl:2241/5190.
  7. "Research History". Keiko Torii. researchmap. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  8. "Visiting Professor Keiko Torii, Group of Plant Pattern Formation". Nagoya University. The Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM). Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  9. "JSPS PRIZE – Japan Society for the Promotion of Science". www.jsps.go.jp.
  10. "AAAS names 11 UW researchers as fellows".
  11. "Nagoya University Awards". en.nagoya-u.ac.jp.
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