Doctor Ann Tsukamoto: The Woman Behind the Isolation
- Dominika Romanik
- Oct 6
- 4 min read
Lake Orion, Michigan
Before the Isolation:
Ann Tsukamoto was born on July 6th, 1952, in California. She was the second of five children in her family, yet she was the first one in her family to go to college. She attended University of California San Diego for her undergrad degree, and later she would attend University of California Los Angeles for her Ph.D program in immunology and macrobiology. After her Ph.D program, she would move to the University of San Francisco to work with the WNT-1 gene and develop a transgenic model of breast cancer. However, it wouldn’t be until 1990 that she would make the discovery of a lifetime.
The Isolation that Saved Human Lives
In the early 1990s, Doctor Ann Tsukamoto was part of the group of scientists that discovered the human hematopoietic stem cell (hHSC). hHSCs are primitive cells that can develop into any type of blood cells by making copies of themselves and maturing into different blood cells. These cells can be found in several places in the human body, such as bone marrow, peripheral blood, and even the umbilical cord blood. hHSCs are regarded as one of the most essential cell sources to treat conditions like hematologic malignancies, liver disease, and even cancer. The discovery of hematopoietic stem cells provided a pioneering step in stem cell research, and the discovery of how to isolate them in a human body led to developments of potential cures to many illnesses. On March 30th, 1990, Ann Tsukamoto, Carles M. Baum, Yukon Aihara, and Irving Weissman would file for a patent numbered 5061620, which would finally announce the discovery of the human hematopoietic stem cell. On June 6th, 1995, they filed the 5643741 patent which detailed the method of isolating human hematopoietic stem cells. Both patents would significantly contribute to the public’s health by enabling the isolation and potential treatment of blood-forming stem cells. This innovation would allow myeloablative chemotherapy patients to regenerate their bone marrow and pave the way for further clinical research in cancer and neurological disorder treatments. However, this isn’t the only patent Doctor Ann Tsukamoto has under her belt.
The Work After the Isolation
In total, Doctor Ann Tsukamoto has 13 patents so far. Out of the 13 patents, seven of them are about the human hematopoietic stem cell. The other patents focus on the genome editing of human neural stem cells, pancreatic stem cells and progenitor cell populations. The latest of her patents was filed January 3rd, 2023 and published August 10th, 2023; the invention (as according to Justia) provides methods for preventing and treating neurodegenerative disease or neurological injuries using genetically modified human neural stem cells. Unlike her previous hHSCs patents, there was no existent assignee for them. But there is more to Doctor Ann Tsukamoto outside her research and patents. Currently, she is an insider for Microbot Medical Inc (MBOT) in which she owns 736,523 shares (about 1.62% of the company) worth —approximately— 2.95 million dollars. Furthermore, she was appointed Executive Vice President of Research and Development at StemCells, Inc in September 2008 (and under her direction, the scientific team at the company discovered the human central nervous stem cells and human liver engrafting cells as well). Despite the closure of Stemcells, Inc in 2016, Tsukamoto is still very much involved in various stem cell research projects and continues to be a pivotal member in the subject. What she will do next is quite unknown for the public, but we are certain to admire her work and appreciate her well-deserved 2023 Changemaker award she received from the UC San Diego Alumni. And who knows? Maybe her daughter Rachel Weissman-Tsukamoto (currently attending Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine for her MD/PhD) will be the one to continue to expand her mother’s research. Regardless of where the future of stem cell research leads, Ann Tsukamoto’s pioneering work in isolating human hematopoietic stem cells stands as a cornerstone of modern medicine — a breakthrough that has already saved countless lives and will continue shaping treatments for generations to come.
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