Eriko Takano is a professor of synthetic biology and a director of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre ''for Fine and Speciality Chemicals'' (SYNBIOCHEM) at the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

. She develops antibiotics and other high-value chemicals using microbial synthetic biology tools.

Early life and education

Takano was born in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. She studied

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

at Kitasato University and graduated in 1985. After graduating she worked as a researcher in the Meiji Seika Kaisha Department of Genetics. She moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

for her graduate studies, where she joined the John Innes Centre. In 1994 she earned her PhD at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

, and she was appointed a postdoctoral researcher in the

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

department.

Research and career

In 2002 Takano was appointed an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology at

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

. Here she worked on the γ-

Butyrolactone Butyrolactone may refer to: * ''beta''-Butyrolactone * ''gamma''-Butyrolactone (GBL) {{Short pages monitor