Keiko Ozato

Keiko Ozato is a Japanese American geneticist whose research has focused on gene regulation in the developing immune system; She is best known for her contributions to immunogenetics and epigenetics in isolating the IRF8 transcription factor that aids humans in fighting off disease and for identifying the BRD4 protein that regulates cellular and viral genes that can invoke epigenetic memory. She is Senior Investigator at the Section on Molecular Genetics of Immunity at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland and a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Personal life Ozato was born in Japan near the beginning of World War II. After the war, the entire Japanese culture was destroyed and left the country in shambles. Along with extreme poverty, Ozato's father suffered from tuberculosis which ultimately fueled her interest in immunology. She has also spoken of the support her mother, "a traditional Japanese housewife with no scientific education", that gave her choice of career. Ozato is married and has said that her husband is a valued scientific ally. IRF8 also happens to be crucial in the fighting of tuberculosis in the human immune system. as well as teaching several immunology courses in the NIH graduate program. She has served as President of the International Society of Interferon and Cytokine Research, and is on the editorial board of Molecular and Cell Biology, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research, and Immunogenetics.

Honors Ozato was awarded the Milstein Award from the International Cytokine and Interferon Society in 2004.