Our People

Takao K. Hensch is joint Professor of Molecular Cellular Biology at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science and Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School at Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a graduate of Harvard, the University of Tokyo, UCSF and a former Fulbright Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute (Frankfurt). After his PhD, Hensch helped to launch the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Japan) as Laboratory Head for Neuronal Circuit Development and Group Director of Critical Period Mechanisms Research, before returning to Harvard in 2006. There he directs an NIMH Silvio Conte Center for Mental Health Research and is a prominent leader and advisor to important global research networks, such as the International Research Center for Neurointelligence (Japan), CIFAR Child Brain Development network (Canada), NCCR Synapsy (Switzerland), OECD-CERI (France) and National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (USA). Professor Hensch has received several honors, including the Sackler Prize (2016), NIH Director’s Pioneer Award (2007), Young Investigator Awards from the Society for Neuroscience both in the US (2005) and Japan (2001 Tsukahara Prize), while serving on various editorial boards, including Neuron, J Neurosci (reviewing editor) and Frontiers in Neural Circuits (chief editor). His lab explores how brain functions are shaped by early life experience, identifying pivotal roles for specific inhibitory circuit ‘triggers’ and molecular ‘brakes’ which can be lifted to enable adult plasticity. These insights shed light on the etiology, biomarkers and potential reversibility of derailed neurodevelopmental trajectories in cognitive disorders, recovery from brain injury in adulthood, and life-long learning more broadly.

Graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Kyoto University in 1973. Trained as a resident and worked as a medical officer and assistant at the Kyoto University Institute for Tuberculosis and Thoracic Diseases. In 1980, studied at the Institute of Genetics at the University of Cologne in Germany. Upon returning to Japan, served as an associate professor at the Institute for Thoracic Diseases, Kyoto University. From 1987, served as a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Kumamoto University, and from 1993, as a professor of Molecular Genetics at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University. In 2002 and concurrently served as the Deputy Director of the Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the Director of the Stem Cell Research Group at the RIKEN Institute. In 2013, resigned from all public positions and started anew as the Representative Director of the NPO All About Science Japan. Currently cooperating with various patient groups to make our country one where patients can be more active in the forefront of healthcare, and also engaged in various activities to support life scientists of the new era.

CEO of Corundum Systems Biology from April 2020. Hidehiko started his career at the Tokyo office of Bain & Company, a US management consulting firm, and moved to JWT, WPP Group’s advertising agency, where he oversaw corporate strategy and marketing strategy in fields such as medical device, pharmaceutical, beverage and automotive clients. Subsequently, he became a founder and CEO of two bio-technology start-up companies with St. Marianna University School of Medicine. He joined Kantar Japan in 2011 and led marketing strategy projects for various FMCG companies as CEO. Hidehiko graduated from the University of Tokyo (International Relations) , Harvard Business School (MBA) and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Tokyo.

Jessica is a Director in Takeda Ventures where she leads investment in NewCo builds for novel therapeutic modality platforms. Jessica previously built a drug discovery portfolio and led a team of scientists dedicated to microbiome therapeutics in Takeda's Gastrointestinal Drug Discovery Unit. Prior to joining to Takeda, Jessica was one of the first scientists at Vedanta Biosciences where she was instrumental in building the live biotherapeutics products (LBP) platform and VE303, an LBP for the treatment of Clostridium difficile currently in Phase 3 clinical trials. Jessica holds a PhD and BS in immunology/microbiology from Cornell University and an MPH from Columbia University in New York. She completed postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller University in New York prior to joining industry.

Liron is the CEO at Corundum Neuroscience. Before being named CEO in December 2021, Liron served as CNS’s VP Product Development and VP Portfolio Success. Prior to CNS, Liron was the CTO of Beyond Mobility, where he evaluated startups for investment, and built and managed the service offering for the company’s corporate clients. 

Before that, Liron headed the CTO office at Consumer Physics, where he was responsible for pushing the envelope of the SCiO device beyond its existing application, as well as expanding target markets. He also led a program at Consumer Physics focused on embedding the SCiO device in the mobile phone. Prior to this role, Liron was part of the founding team of Pearls of Wisdom, where he served as VP Development. 

Earlier in his career, Liron led R&D in various disciplines and areas of technology, where he enjoyed rolling up his sleeves and getting his hands dirty in the actual development process as much as possible.

Liron holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics, from the Hebrew University, as part of the Talpiot honors program.

Eran Segal serves as Co-Chair of CCI's Scientific Advisory Board and is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute of Science, heading a lab with a multi-disciplinary team of computational biologists and experimental scientists in the area of Computational and Systems biology. His group has extensive experience in AI, machine learning, computational biology, and analysis of heterogeneous high-throughput genomic data. His research focuses on Microbiome, Nutrition, Genetics, and their effect on health and disease. His aim is to develop personalized medicine based on data from large-scale and deeply phenotyped human cohorts.

Prof. Segal published over 200 publications that were cited over 70,000 times, and received several awards and honors for his work, including the Overton prize, awarded annually by the International Society for Bioinformatics (ICSB) to one scientist for outstanding accomplishments in computational biology, and the Michael Bruno award. He was also elected as an EMBO member and as a member of the young Israeli academy of science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof. Segal developed models for analyzing the dynamics of the pandemic and served as a senior advisor to the government of Israel.

Before joining the Weizmann Institute, Prof. Segal held an independent research position at Rockefeller University, New York.

Education: Prof. Segal was awarded a B.Sc. in Computer Science summa cum laude in 1998, from Tel-Aviv University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Genetics in 2004, from Stanford University.

Yun-Gi Kim is a Professor at the Department of Microbiology, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kitasato University, Japan. He also serves as a scientific advisor at Corundum Systems Biology Inc. and a senior scientific advisor at Meiji Holdings Co., Ltd. Before joining Kitasato University, he held an independent research position at the Research Center for Drug Discovery, Faculty of Pharmacy, Keio University, Japan. Professor Kim earned a PhD in Microbiology from Kitasato University and worked at the University of Michigan Medical School (Dr. Gabriel Nunez Lab) as a postdoc focused on mechanistic studies to understand the role of members of the Nod-like receptor (NLR) and Toll-like receptor (TLR) families in the host immune response against microbial pathogens. Then he became an assistant Professor at Tsukuba University and revealed gut dysbiosis exacerbates allergic lung inflammation. He also joined Vedanta Biosciences, Inc., one of the leading Microbiome biotech companies, as a senior scientist and contributed to the development of VE303. VE303 is a rationally designed gut bacteria consortia that consists of Clostridium cluster IV & XIVa and are effective in recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection. The phase 3 trial of VE303 was initiated earlier in 2024. His current research focuses include a molecular understanding of the role of gut microbiota in inflammatory diseases inside and outside the intestine and of the impact of the diet on the gut microbiota and host physiology. Dietary indigestible carbohydrates are his current strong interest since each differentially modulates gut microbiota composition and metabolites. To date, Professor Kim has over 60 published papers including Science, Nature Medicine, Immunity, Cell Host & Microbe, and Cell Reports.

Rieka Chijiiwa is an experienced researcher professional with a focus on microbiology, specifically the gut microbiome and the environmental microbiome. As of October 2021, I have been serving as an assistant at Corundum Systems Biology, Inc. In this role, I am responsible for surveying scientific trends in the microbiome field and supporting R&D investments in new technologies related to the microbiome. This position allows me to stay at the forefront of microbiome research and contribute to the development of innovative biotechnologies. In addition to my research responsibilities, my role requires a blend of scientific expertise and strategic business acumen, enabling me to contribute to both the scientific and operational success of the projects I am involved in.

Before joining Corundum Systems Biology, Inc., I served as a Junior Researcher (Assistant Professor) at Waseda University's Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation from October 2020 to September 2021. My academic background includes a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, a Master's degree, and a Doctorate in Engineering from Waseda University where I conducted significant research in biomolecular engineering, microbiology, and biotechnology. I have also participated in an international collaboration program (Joint Supervision Program) at Bonn University in Germany, which provided me with valuable insights into international scientific collaboration. My diverse experience as a research assistant and teaching assistant at Waseda University and the AIST-Waseda University Computational Bio Big Data Open Innovation Laboratory (CBBD-OIL) has equipped me with a comprehensive skill set.

Sabrina is the Marketing Director at Corundum Neuroscience. She oversees CNS’ brand, marketing and communication strategy, and ecosystem programs.

Before joining CNS, Sabrina was the Government & Cities Program Manager at SOSA, where she oversaw innovation partnerships with countries and cities such as Australia, Cologne and the Basque Country, and led the business development of the program. Prior to this role, she served as SOSA’s Innovation Ecosystem Manager and was responsible for growing SOSA’s presence in the tech ecosystem, overseeing weekly industry events and programming, and working directly with SOSA’s 50+ VC clients on their marketing and ecosystem outreach strategy.

Sabrina holds a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Communications and Film & Media Studies, from Northwestern University.

Caleb is an innovator, entrepreneur and investor with decades of experience building and investing in deep tech startups internationally. Caleb is a Venture Partner for Corundum Systems Biology (CSB), a Tokyo based innovation hub that is involved in early stage venture investing, sponsored research and directly undertaking fundamental research with the singular purpose to improve human wellbeing. Prior to his investing role with CSB, Caleb has worked for Arcline Investment Management, G4S Capital, Beyond Next Ventures, Prime Movers Lab and CTIC Capital successfully deploying around $750 million in life sciences financings. Prior to his career as an investor, Caleb spent two decades managing businesses he founded across diverse industries including hospitality, biotech, tech and financial services.

Entrepreneurship is embedded in Caleb’s DNA and he enjoys supporting innovators and entrepreneurs through various Board, Mentor and other pro bono roles such as Stanford’s StartX, BRAVE Global, Blockbuster Tokyo, The California Life Sciences Institute, Bay Bio, Alliance for Regnenerative Medicine, BIO International, UCLA Biodesign, Nucleate, and others. His overarching mission is to support the improvement of humanity through a healthy mind, body and environment. To achieve this he is dedicating his career to building efficient pathways for collaboration amongst entrepreneurs, operators, partners and funders in venture ecosystems across the globe. Innovation is a fundamental condition of being a human while successfully realizing the full potential requires bringing together diversely skilled humans, cultivating a shared vision and creating a productive culture that enables focused value creation. "It takes a village to raise a company” and our planetary village is more powerful than any.

Caleb received a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry from Stanford University where he also attended at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is the inventor of over 25 issued patents and the author of more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. Caleb is eternally curious, and his present interests include supporting the commercial and clinical realization of living medicines (cell, gene, and microbiome therapies), bio-inspired technologies, and the intersection of computers / hardware and biology.

Sou Miyake is Head of Venture Investments at Corundum Systems Biology, where he is leading venture capital investments. Given his academic background, his speciality includes life science, biotech and deep tech, particularly in the microbiome and related fields. His previous experiences include life science strategy consulting at L.E.K. Consulting, Japan BD & operational lead at Shopee, and microbiome academic research at Temasek Life Sciences. Sou gained his bachelor's degree from the University of Bristol, U.K. and MSci. and PhD. from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, on molecular microbiology.

Kazuyuki (Kaz) is one of the founding members of Corundum Convergence Institute and serves as Treasurer. Kaz currently serves as Board Member of Corundum Innovation and Board Member and CFO of Corundum Systems Biology. Previously, Kaz served multiple roles at WeWork Japan from 2018 including Chairman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), where he led the opening of 37 locations across 7 cities and introduced new services such as “All Access” and “Private Access” to facilitate new work style in Japan. Prior to WeWork, he served as Chief Financial Officer of General Electric (GE) Japan. Kaz started his career at GE in 2003 and held multiple Finance roles at GE HQ, GE Japan, GE Capital and GE Power.

Josh Schulman is the Founding Secretary of CCI. In addition to helping build and drive the Institute operationally, he is actively involved in developing and implementing the CCI scientific vision and building collaborations across neuroscience, microbiome and artificial intelligence.

He also serves as Chief Scientist at Corundum Neuroscience (CNS), a venture builder and fund dedicated to bringing life-changing neuroscience solutions to market. At CNS, Josh is responsible for scientific strategy and execution across CNS’ funded research program and serves on the board of directors of CNS as well as portfolio companies Graymatters Health (https://www.graymatters-health.com/) and NYX Technologies (https://www.nyx-tech.com/).

In over 20 years in industry, he has held founding, operational and leadership positions in R&D, regulatory affairs, clinical and business development in organizations spanning pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and both software and traditional medical devices. These roles have been in organizations ranging from small startups to Fortune 100 companies, , in teams developing a wide range of products from idea to clinical deployment, including breakthrough-designated devices.

Josh completed a PhD in neurobiology under an individual NIH National Research Service Award, and following a postdoc in brain biomarker development, supported strategy and operations for cutting-edge, government-funded research and development programs in neuroscience.

He continues to be active in helping develop standards and policies, ranging from participation in regulatory pilots to coauthoring cloud computing guidelines for medical devices. He also actively mentors in a variety of accelerator and academic settings.

Yamamoto Yasushi is the founder of Corundum Innovation Co., Ltd, driven by a mission to explore and invest in life-changing discoveries, in partnership with Researchers, Entrepreneurs, Businesses and other visionaries around the world.

Throughout the career carrier at Sumitomo Corporation, one of Japan's premier SogoShosha conglomerates, Yamamoto has held pivotal management roles within the landscape of life sciences. His professional journey has taken him across diverse geographies, including Ivory Coast, France, and Australia, enriching his global perspective and fostering invaluable networks.

Under Yamamoto's leadership, Corundum Innovation has flourished, boasting three dynamic subsidiaries. Corundum Open Innovation (Israel) spearheads venture capital initiatives through funds such as COIF-I and COIF-II. Meanwhile, Corundum Neuroscience (Israel) serves as a pioneering Innovation-Hub dedicated to advancing Brain-Science, while Corundum Systems Biology (based in Luxembourg and Japan) focuses on cutting-edge research in Microbiome, multi-omics, and the Deep Phenotype Data x AI domain.

In a testament to his commitment to the advancement of science, Yamamoto established the Corundum Convergence Institute in 2023. This charitable foundation, registered as a 501(c)(3) organization in Delaware, USA, is dedicated to providing vital support to scientific endeavors, embodying Yamamoto's vision “A world enlightened by the convergence of science, technology, business and beyond”

Yamamoto graduated from Kyoto University (faculty of economics), married and a father of one son.

Cilla Zack is a social psychologist passionate about scientific research and application and has been a team member at the Corundum Convergence Institute since it was founded. In addition, Cilla has been the Academic Program Manager at Corundum Neuroscience since 2019, managing the Academic Grant Program which focuses on initiating and supporting the academic development of innovative technologies, interventions, and novel approaches to neuro-health. 

Since 2018, she has also been managing her own business, Simple Habits, where she is committed to both the science and practice of well-being by disseminating and translating cutting-edge scientific research into user-friendly insights and applications.

Cilla’s scientific and management training began at the Israeli Air Force, International Affairs Department following a BA in Psychology, Philosophy, and the History of Art and Architecture from the University of California Santa Barbara and an MA in Social Psychology from the Reichman University. For over a decade, Cilla worked in both global industries and national research initiatives promoting individual growth and long-term, large-scale outcomes.

Born in Japan, Hiroko spent part of her childhood in the Netherlands, where she attended the American School of The Hague. She graduated from Kunitachi College of Music with a bachelor's degree in violin performance and began her career as a professional violinist. Hiroko performed as an orchestra and chamber music player, as well as a soloist. She won several awards in auditions and competitions and performed with renowned musicians and artists on TV programs. During her studies, she received a college scholarship and attended the Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy and Festival, where she studied with Prof. Werner Hink. She also attended the Kirishima International Music Festival, studying under Prof. Hamao Fujiwara. Additionally, she studied with Hiromi Kikuchi in the Netherlands and Takumi Komoriya during college.

After a few years as a professional violinist, Hiroko transitioned to a business career, driven by a strong interest in the business side. Before joining Corundum, she worked at Mitsubishi Corporation and an Australian company, specializing in supporting global startups across various domains—such as finance, crop science, entertainment and IT—seeking to enter and expand their presence in the Japanese market. Drawn to supporting startups, Hiroko joined Corundum in 2022, where she enjoys collaborating with extraordinary talents and her unique and lovely team members. Planning of entrepreneurship programs is one of her focus areas at Corundum.

Hiroko is a working mother of two children and is currently studying to obtain her USCPA license.

In his role as Advisor to Corundum, Thomas works with the Marketing and Communications, Operations and special projects for the group, as well as helping to establish and fundraise for Corundum Convergence Institute, the NPO.

Thomas was born in Tokyo to a German father and a Chinese mother and spent time in Asia, Europe and Africa whilst attending Stonyhurst College in the UK. Graduating from London University, Royal Holloway College with a BSc (Hons) in Psychology, Thomas moved to Beijing in 1992 to study Chinese at the Beijing Foreign Language Institute and Peking University.

Thomas began his career in television in London at MTV Europe, and in 1998 moved to Shanghai to launch MTV China as Head of Production, where he launched multiple show formats, worked closely with state broadcasters, and co-produced the inaugural CCTV MTV Music Awards Show.

In 2000 Thomas established id creations in Shanghai - one of the first international independent television production companies in China, which swiftly became the leading quality production house in China counting some of the most prestigious multi-national companies and brands amongst their long-term clients and partners. id creations worked with clients on global projects in and around the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 Shanghai Expo, the launch of Disneyland Shanghai, and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Shanghai.

In 2018 Thomas managed the sale of id creations to Publicis Group and now lives in France.