Mari Dezawa, MD, PhD, graduated Chiba University School of Medicine in 1989, worked as a resident in Chiba University hospital, and then earned her PhD degree in 1995. She then moved to Yokohama City University as Assistant Professor in 2000 and to Kyoto University as Associate Professor in 2003, where she studied mesenchymal stem cells (J. Clin. Invest, 2004; Science, 2005). In 2008, she was appointed as Professor and Chair in Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, discovering Muse cells (PNAS, 2010). She became a fellow of National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in the USA in 2018.