Hiromi Miura PhD Announced as the 7th ISTT Young Investigator Awardee

7^th ISTT Young Investigator Award:  Hiromi Miura, PhD

This activity is supported by an independent medical education grant from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

 The International Society for Transgenic Technologies (ISTT) is pleased to announce the awardee for the 7th ISTT Young Investigator Award. The ISTT created the Young Investigator Award to identify and recognize young scientists who will keep the field of transgenic technologies vibrant with new ideas and innovative research. After careful evaluation of the nominated candidates, the Award Evaluation Committee unanimously selected Dr. Hiromi Miura, an Assistant Professor in the department of Molecular Life Science, Division of Basic Medical Science and Molecular Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine, Japan. Hiromi has been nominated by Thom Saunders (next elected ISTT Vice-President).

Dr. Miura completed her PhD in 2016, at the Tokai University School of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Masato Ohtsuka, a longstanding ISTT member. Through her studies, she played an important role in contributing to ideas that led to the development of  breakthrough transgenic technologies, which are now widely used by the transgenic community. Dr. Miura pioneered the use of long single stranded DNA donors for homology directed repair of CRISPR/Cas9 induced chromosome breaks (also known as Easi-CRISPR: efficient additions with ssDNA inserts). Her results showed that long ssDNA donors generate knockin mice with high efficiency. Dr. Miura has done research in and published other transgenic technologies including pronuclear injection-based targeted transgenesis (PITT), artificial microRNA (amiRNA) expression cassettes for RNAi based gene knockdown, and delivery of gene editing materials in the oviduct: i-GONAD (Genome-editing via Oviductal Nucleic Acids Delivery). This new and simple method for creating genome engineered mice avoids the tedious steps of zygote isolation, zygote microinjection and transfer of injected zygotes into recipient females. The active CRISPR/Cas9 components are directly electroporated in situ into zygotes for proven efficient genome edition. 

In addition to introducing new transgenic technologies to the field Dr. Miura teaches workshops to disseminate technologies to ISTT members and other interested scientists. Her scientific career is focused on transgenic technologies. She personifies the ISTT mission: development and dissemination of transgenic technologies. Her outstanding achievements advance the field of transgenic technologies and will continue to do so in the future.

We are most pleased that Hiromi has agreed to receive the ISTT Young Investigator Award, thus joining the list of previously honored scientists, including Bin Gu (2019), Alexis Komor (2017), Pablo Ross (2016), Feng Zhang (2014), Toru Takeo (2013) and Xiao-Yang Zhao (2011). She will present her work during the online virtual 16th Transgenic Technology meeting (TT2020), giving us a unique opportunity to learn more about recent advances in the field.

The following articles represent some of her recent findings published in the last years, highlighting her most recent contributions to the field. These publications have had a substantial impact in the animal transgenesis field and have rapidly become highly sought-after references.

Creation of CRISPR-based germline-genome-engineered mice without ex vivo handling of zygotes by i- GONAD. Gurumurthy CB, Sato M, Nakamura A, Inui M, Kawano N, Islam MA, Ogiwara S, Takabayashi S, Matsuyama M, Nakagawa S, Miura H, Ohtsuka M. 2019. Nat Protoc. 14:2452-2482.

Easi-CRISPR for creating knock-in and conditional knockout mouse models using long ssDNA donors. Miura H, Quadros RM, Gurumurthy CB, Ohtsuka M. 2018. Nat Protoc. 13:195-215.

Assessment of Artificial MiRNA Architectures for Higher Knockdown Efficiencies without the Undesired Effects in Mice. Miura H, Inoko H, Tanaka M, Nakaoka H, Kimura M, Gurumurthy CB, Sato M, Ohtsuka M. 2015. PLoS One. 10:e0135919.

CRISPR/Cas9-based generation of knockdown mice by intronic insertion of artificial microRNA using longer single-stranded DNA. Miura H, Gurumurthy CB, Sato T, Sato M, Ohtsuka M. 2015. Sci Rep. 5:12799. 

Targeted transgenesis through pronuclear injection of improved vectors into in vitro fertilized eggs.  Ohtsuka M, Miura H, Nakaoka H, Kimura M, Sato M, Inoko H. 2012. Transgenic Res. 21:225-6.

CRISPR/Cas9-based generation of knockdown mice by intronic insertion of artificial microRNA using longer single-stranded DNA. Miura H, Gurumurthy CB, Sato T, Sato M, Ohtsuka M. 2015. Sci Rep. 5:12799.

With my best wishes … and the hope to see you all soon online for our first TT Meeting virtual experience!

 Benoît,

on behalf of The TT2020 ISTT Young Investigator Committee: Martina Crispo (BoD Officer), Wojtek Auerbach (ISTT President), Ernst-Martin Füchtbauer (BoD Officer; next elected ISTT President) and Benoît Kanzler (ISTT Vice-President).