Emi Nishimura is currently a Professor in the Department of Stem Cell Biology at Medical Research Institute of Tokyo Medical and Dental University. She obtained her MD in 1994 and completed dermatology residency in Kyoto University Hospital. She then obtained her PhD in Shin-Ichi Nishikawa's lab at Kyoto University, studying melanocyte development, where she subsequently identified melanocyte stem cells. Nishimura did her post-doc training in David Fisher's lab in the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and extended her melanocyte stem cell research there. She then started her own group as an Associate Professor at Hokkaido University, subsequently becoming Professor at Kanazawa University the following year. Her lab then moved to Tokyo Medical and Dental University in 2009.