Dr. Takeshi Saito is a board-certified gastroenterologist-hepatologist, associate professor of medicine, pathology, and molecular microbiology&immunology at the University of Southern California (USC), Keck School of Medicine, and director of the hepatocyte-isolation and culture core at the USC Research Center for Liver Diseases. Dr. Saito earned his M.D.-Ph.D. from Showa University, School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan, where he also completed his internal medicine residency and gastroenterology-hepatology fellowship. He completed post-doctoral training in microbiology and immunology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Washington, respectively.

His laboratory focuses on deciphering virus-host interactions, particularly the interface between hepatic innate immunity and viral immune evasion strategies at the molecular, cellular, and organ levels. Dr. Saito leverages the other side of his expertise, applied bioengineering of the liver, such as humanized liver chimeric mice and primary human hepatocyte culture systems, to elucidate the role of hepatic innate immunity in viral hepatitis as well as various types of human liver diseases. His research program at USC has been continuously supported through grants from the NIH, foundations, and industry.

He is a recipient of the Liver Scholar Award from the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD)-American Liver Foundation as well as American Gastroenterological Association (AGA)-Research Scholar Award, and Baxter Foundation Faculty Fellow Award. He is a fellow member of AGA.

Dr. Saito has served on the editorial boards of Hepatology and Journal of Medical Virology and is currently an associate editor for Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research and Digestive Diseases and Sciences, as well as an editorial board member for Journal of Virology. He is a former American Federation of Medical Research councilor. He is presently a member of the NIH-HBPP study section as well as the AGA Institute Research Awards Panel.