Matthew Akamatsu

Dr. Matthew Akamatsu, a 2016 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow, is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington. His research focuses on the mechanical interplay between the actin cytoskeleton and membrane trafficking processes, particularly clathrin-mediated endocytosis, using interdisciplinary approaches combining biophysical modeling, CRISPR gene editing, and fluorescence microscopy.

His work investigates how molecular-scale force-dependent properties of actin-binding proteins translate into collective cytoskeletal self-assembly and adaptive mechanical responses. A key output includes an interactive simulation of actin's role in endocytosis available at simularium.allencell.org.

• NIH K99 Pathway to Independence Award recipient
• 2020 Porter Prize for Research Excellence
• 2020 UC Berkeley MCB Outstanding Postdoc Award

His publications highlight actin network self-organization, elastic energy storage, and conserved mechanisms across membrane trafficking processes, with implications for understanding cellular self-assembly in stochastic environments.