Yumi Ohtani

Yumi Ohtani is a biomedical research leader specializing in immunology, target validation, oncology, gastrointestinal diseases, and neuroscience. Originally from Japan, she earned her PhD in immunology there before moving to the University of Pennsylvania for her postdoc. She stayed at UPenn as a senior researcher for approximately 10 years. In 2017, she transitioned to the pharmaceutical industry, first spending two years at a small biotech company developing antibodies for oncology. She then joined a cellular therapy company spun out from UPenn, where she played a key role in generating CAR constructs and vectors for macrophage therapies and advancing them through IND submissions. After that company concluded operations, she joined Takeda one year ago. In her current role, she focuses on target validation across oncology, GI, and neuroscience, developing complex human disease models using iPS cells and other advanced platforms to validate drug targets and accelerate the pipeline. She bridges collaboration between teams in Japan and the United States.