Takebe Named to TIME100 Health List of Most Influential Leaders

Research innovator with dual appointments at Cincinnati Children's and in Japan recognized for expertise in organoid medicine and a rectal breathing rescue concept

CINCINNATI, Feb. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD, has been named to the 2026 TIME100 Health List of the World's Most Influential Leaders in Health.

The honor spotlights the 100 most influential innovators, leaders, pioneers, and catalysts who have pushed new ideas ahead—from gene therapies to regulatory agencies—to build healthier populations around the world. Takebe is the first scientist from Cincinnati Children's to be selected to the TIME100 Health list.

The full list and related tributes are posted online now. The stories also will appear in the Feb. 23, 2026, issue, available on newsstands beginning Feb. 13.

A difference-making scientist

Takebe, 39, joined Cincinnati Children's in 2016. He is a member of the divisions of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and Developmental Biology, and director for commercial innovation at the Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Research and Medicine (CuSTOM).

He also is a professor at the University of Osaka in Japan and a co–scientific founder of OrsoBio, a start-up company focused on metabolic therapeutics.

Takebe's research accomplishments include pioneering work in organoid medicine, regenerative biology, and unconventional respiratory support technologies.

His laboratory was among the earliest to refine techniques for generating functional liver organoids, which have allowed researchers to move beyond animal-based models to study disease causes and test potential treatments using human tissue systems.

His organoid development work includes creating the world's first three-organoid model, demonstrating methods to mass-produce customized human liver organoids for use in lab studies, and a design for a bioartificial liver. Takebe and colleagues also have used organoid tissues to identify a new therapeutic target for treating dyslipidemia and fatty liver disease, and have developed even more sophisticated "multi-zonal" liver organoids. 

The TIME100 honor focuses on work Takebe has conducted in addition to his research in regenerative medicine. Takebe has attracted international attention for research demonstrating that oxygenated liquid can be delivered rectally as a rescue method for patients in severe respiratory distress.

This work, which started with animal-based results published in the journal Med, was later featured in the Canada-based science show The Nature of Things and led to Takebe and colleagues receiving an IgNobel Prize in 2024. Since then, the "butt breathing" concept has moved into human clinical trials in partnership with EVA Therapeutics, a start-up from the Institute of Science Tokyo, where the enteral ventilation research began.

"Although the recognition highlights our work on enteral ventilation, which was conducted primarily in Japan, there is a deep connection to Cincinnati Children's. The oxygenated liquid material we use is rooted in a pioneering discovery by Dr. Leland Clark, formerly with our institution," Takebe says.

As a rising young innovator, Takebe has received several prestigious honors. In 2023, he received the ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award for his impact on stem cell and organoid-based science. In 2024 he was selected for a Vilcek Foundation Award for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, celebrating immigrant scientists whose work advances science in the United States. Takebe received the Japan Academy Medal in 2019 and the Robertson Stem Cell Investigator Award from The New York Stem Cell Foundation in 2016.

"I am always proud to be part of the Cincinnati Children's team," Takebe says. "I am genuinely grateful for my dear family, lab members, and everyone's support, mentorship, and friendship across the divisions I belong to, which makes this prestigious recognition possible as a collective team."

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SOURCE Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center