Dr. Hikaru Watanabe is a microbiome and computational biology researcher and Senior Bioinformatician at Metagen Therapeutics. His work focuses on fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for ulcerative colitis, with an emphasis on donor–recipient microbiome matching and the scientific principles needed to advance FMT-based therapeutics. During his doctoral training at Tokyo Institute of Technology, he studied human microbiome dynamics, including a skin microbiome–based personal identification approach, and contributed to research linking the gut microbiome to colorectal cancer. After completing his Ph.D., he worked at RICOH on iPSC-derived neuron differentiation using RNA-seq, SNP detection, and single-cell analysis.