Nicholas Kawasaki was born and raised in Honolulu. He obtained his Bachelor of Science at Johns Hopkins university in 2015 and his Ph.D in Developmental and Reproductive Biology at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in 2024. He is currently an instructor for the PHYL 141/142 lecture and lab course at UH Mānoa.
Dr. Kawasaki can also be found teaching Anatomy at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. When not teaching, Dr. Kawasaki has a passion for cardiovascular research and can be seen mentoring both undergraduate and medical students.
Graduate Faculty
Developmental and Reproductive Biology
Research Interests
Dr. Kawasaki’s research interests are in cardiovascular physiology and specifically the role of ferroptosis in adverse left ventricle remodeling. Ferroptosis is a relatively newer form of cell death that can be identified due to unregulated lipid peroxidation that has its basis with physiological iron. Adverse left ventricle remodeling is an important factor in understanding worsening health outcomes after a myocardial infarction and ferroptosis may be a key to elucidating future pathways for damage. Currently, he has shifted his focus towards the presence of microplastics in cardiomyocytes and their potential role in ferroptosis and overall cardiomyocyte injury.
Selected Publications
Kawasaki NK, Suhara T, Komai K, Shimada BK, Yorichika N, Kobayashi M, Baba Y, Higa JK, Matsui T. The role of ferroptosis in cell-to-cell propagation of cell death initiated from focal injury in cardiomyocytes. Life Sci. 2023;332:122113. doi:10.1016/j.lfs.2023.122113 Yang X*, Kawasaki NK*, Min J, Matsui T, Wang F. Ferroptosis in heart failure. Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology 2022;10,173. doi: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2022.10.004 PMID:36273661 (*equally to this work) Higa JK, Kawasaki NK, Matsui T. Ferroptosis in Cardiovascular Disease. In: Daolin Tang, editor. Ferroptosis in Health and Disease. Springer Nature; 2023 (First edition published in 2019)
