Professor Mari Dezawa graduated from Chiba University School of Medicine, Chiba, Japan, in 1989, was awarded the degree of MD, and worked as a resident in the Department of Internal Medicine at Chiba University Hospital. She started Neural Regeneration Research at the Department of Histology, Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine, was awarded her PhD in 1995, and continued her studies at Yokohama City University.
After moving to Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine as Associate Professor in 2003, she developed methods to induce human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to form neural and skeletal muscle cells (J. Clin. Invest, 2004; Science, 2005).
In 2008, she was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Histology at Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, where she discovered reparative pluripotent stem cells, Multilineage-Differentiating Stress Enduring (MUSE) stem cells, residing in the body (PNAS, 2010; PNAS, 2011; Nat Protocol, 2013; Cell Mol Life Sci, 2022).
Her team conducted pre-clinical studies for MUSE stem cells (Stroke, 2017; JASN, 2017; Cir Res, 2018; Mol Ther, 2020; Am J Transpl, 2021; JCBFM, 2021; J Invest Dermatol. 2021) and conducted clinical studies for their application in acute myocardial infarction, subacute stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, epidermolysis bullosa, neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and cervical spinal cord injury (Stem Cell Transl Med, 2024).
She has been awarded several prizes, including the Prize for The Commendation for Science and Technology, Japan Government (2011). In 2018, she was appointed a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) in the USA.