Biography

Dr. Yusuke Shimakawa is a senior epidemiologist leading the Viral Hepatitis Elimination Group at the Emerging Disease Epidemiology Unit, Institut Pasteur in Paris. He is also a visiting professor at Kumamoto University and coordinates the Pasteur International Unit at Kumamoto University and the Japan Institute for Health Security (JIHS), Japan. He holds a medical degree from Jikei University (Japan), a PhD in epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (UK), and an HDR (Accreditation to Supervise Research) from Paris Cité University (France).

Dr. Shimakawa has broad field experience working in resource-limited settings, including as a clinician with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Thailand and as an epidemiologist with the MRC Unit in The Gambia. His current research focuses on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and the scale-up of hepatitis B treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, with particular emphasis on evaluating strategies for diagnosis, vaccination, and antiviral prophylaxis that are effective, acceptable, scalable, and equitable. He has also been commissioned by the WHO to conduct systematic reviews and meta-analyses to inform global clinical guidelines on hepatitis B.