Hideyuki Okano received M.D. in Physiology from Keio University in 1983. After he obtained a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology of Myelin-related genes and myelin deficient mutant mice from Keio University in 1988, he held post-doctoral position at Dr. Craig Montell’s Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has appointed full professor at Tsukuba University School of Medicine in 1994, Osaka University School of Medicine in 1997, and returned to Keio University Medical School in 2001 as a full professor of Physiology. In 2022, he was appointed as a Visiting Professor at the Department of Neuroscience and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

From 2007 to 2021, he has been a Dean of Keio University Graduate School of Medicine or a Dean of Keio University School of Medicine. He has been conducting basic research in the field of regenerative medicine including, neural stem cells and iPS cells, spinal cord injury, developmental genetics, and RNA binding proteins. He has been awarded a number of awards and honors including the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2009, the first prize of the 51^st Erwin von Bälz Prize in 2014, the 18th Takamine Memorial Daiichi Sankyo Prize in 2020, the Uehara Prize in 2021, and Mochida Prize in 2022. He aims to establish and provide patients-specific iPS cells and genetically modified non-human primate models for neuroscience research and to explore the pathogenic mechanisms of neurological/psychiatric disorders. Currently, he is the leader of the Brain Project in Japan (Brain/MINDS) and the President of The Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine and The Japanese Society for Neurochemistry.