The Fujise Lab
Ken Fujise, MD
Professor, Principal Investigator, and the Harold T. Dodge-John L. Locke Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine
Adjunct Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology; Graduate Faculty, UW Graduate School; Member, the Fred Hutchinson/University of Washington Cancer Consortium; Member, the Institute for Stem Cell & Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM); Member, the University of Washington Medicine Diabetes Institute (UWMDI); and Member, the Diabetes Research Center (DRC); Associate Member, University of Washington Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC).
Ken is a physician-scientist whose passion is in the 360-degree characterization of fortilin, a multi-functional molecule that he identified as a protein-partner of MCL1 using the yeast-two hybrid screening during his research fellowship. After graduating from Kyoto University School of Medicine, his internship and residency training was at Metropolitan Hospital Center and Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. His general cardiology training was at Beth Israel Medical Center while his interventional cardiology training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. His research fellowship was at the Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention and Treatment of Human Diseases within the University of Texas Health Science Canter at Houston where he was Assistant and Associate Professor. He was Professor and Section Chief of Cardiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston between 2007 and 2019 before he moved his lab to the University of Washington, Seattle in 2020.
Lena Tanaka, M.S.
Research Scientist
After graduating from Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles, Lena earned her M.S. from the Walla Walla University, focusing on a tumor associated antigen. She has developed strong expertise in translational research and immunology over the years. She has published 8 papers in peer reviewed journals. She joined the lab in June 2022.
Mari Nakashima, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
After completing her B.S. degree from Ochanomizu University, Tokyo Japan, Mari earned her M.S. degree from the Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences. In 2022, she graduated from the same university with her Ph.D. Her thesis advisor and mentor was Professor Yasunori Miyamoto at the Ochanomizu University. She is a recipient of Yasui-Kuroda Scholarship and Mayako Ikeda Memorial Scholarship. She joined the lab in July 2022.
Sandipan Mukherjee, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
After completing his Bachelor in Technology (B.T.) degree (Biotechnology) at the West Bengal University of Technology, Kolkata, India, he earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Guwahati, India, where he focused on Biosciences and Bioengineering. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at IIT Bombay, India before he joined the lab in September 2022.
Uttariya Pal, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
After completing his B.S. degree from Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHIATS) and his Master of Technology (M.Tech) in Biotechnology from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Durgapur, India, Dr. Pal earned his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, Assam, India. His research interests include metabolism and cancer biology, and he joined the lab in April 2024.