Satoshi Namekawa, PhD is Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and he aims to elucidate epigenetic mechanisms that govern germ cells, which connects directly to the study of cancer biology. Germ cells and cancer cells share many epigenetic similarities, and, for another, the ectopic activation of a germline program is apparent in many types of cancers. The elucidation of the germline mechanisms holds great potential to inform the study of cancer biology.