Research Area	Theoretical Biology
Lab Website	Lab Website
Google Scholar	Google Scholar
ResearchMap	https://researchmap.jp/AkiraSasaki
E-mail	sasaki_akira (at) soken.ac.jp

Akira Sasaki joined the Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems (ESB) at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, in July 2007 as a Professor of Mathematical Biology. His current position is the Professor of the Research Institute for Integrative Evolutionary Science (RCIES) at SOKENDAI.
Dr. Sasaki received his Ph.D. from Kyushu University in 1989. He became Assistant Professor of mathematical biology at Kyushu University in 1989. From 1996 to June 2007, he has been Associate Professor of mathematical biology at Kyushu University. He has been a visiting research fellow at North Carolina State University, USA (1993-1994), the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands (1997), University College London Silwood Park, UK (1998, 1999), Oxford University, UK (1998, 1999), Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA (2001-2002), and Harvard University, USA (2003). Since September 2005, he has been a research associate of the Evolution and Ecology Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria. From October 2007 to March 2011, he has been a JST PRESTO researcher. He served as the President of the Japanese Society for Mathematical Biology (2017-2018) and is serving as co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Theoretical Biology (2020-present).
He is working on the stochastic theory of population genetics, host-parasite coevolution, species packing theory, spatially explicit models of ecology and epidemiology, intrahost dynamics of pathogen and immune system, bet-hedging in changing environment, evolution of cooperation, evolution of mutability in fitness landscapes, restriction avoidance and the evolution of word frequency in phage genome, spatial mosaic formation in Müllerian mimicry system, epidemiology and evolution of virulence in small worlds networks, and on other problems in theoretical population biology.

Selected Publications, Books etc.

• 1.Saeki K, Sasaki A (2023) Cell-to-cell transmission promotes the emergence of double-drug resistance. Virus Evolution 9(1):vead017. doi:10.1093/ve/vead017
• 2.Ito M, Sasaki A (2023) Casting votes of antecedents play a key role in successful sequential decision-making. PLOS ONE 18:e0282062. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0282062
• 3.Lion S, Sasaki S, Boots M (2023) Extending eco-evolutionary theory with oligomorphic dynamics. Ecology Letters 2023:00:1-25. doi:10.1111/ele.14183
• 4.Kumata R, Sasaki A (2022) Antigenic escape accelerated by the presence of immunocompromised hosts. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289: 20221437. doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.1437 プレスリリース
• 5.Uchiumi Y, Sato M, Sasaki A (2022) Evolutionary double suicide in symbiotic systems. Ecology Letters 26:87-98. doi:10.1111/ele.14136 プレスリリース
• 6.Ishikawa K, Kuroda T, Hori T, Iwata D, Matsuzawa S, Nakabayashi J, Sasaki A, Ashizawa T (2022) Long-term blast control in high eating quality rice using multilines. Scientific Reports 12:14880. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-19237-x
• 7.Lion S, Boots M, Sasaki A (2022) Multi-morph eco-evolutionary dynamics in structured populations. American Naturalist 200:345-372. doi:10.1086/720439
• 8.Sasaki A, Lion S, Boots M (2022) Antigenic escape selects for the evolution of higher pathogen transmission and virulence. Nature Ecology and Evolution 6:51-62. doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01603-z プレスリリース
• 9.Sato M, Sasaki A (2021) Evolution and maintenance of mutualism between tubeworms and sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. American Naturalist 197:351-365. doi:10.1086/712780
• 10.Uchiumi Y, Sasaki A (2020) Evolution of division of labour in mutualistic symbiosis. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 287:20200669. doi:10.1098/rspb.2020.0669
• 11.Ito H, Sasaki A (2020) Evolutionary branching in distorted trait spaces. Journal of Theoretical Biology 489:110152. doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110152
• 12.Suzuki S, Sasaki A (2019) Ecological and evolutionary stabilities of biotrophism, necrotrophism, and saprotrophism. American Naturalist 194:90-103. doi:10.1086/703485