Hiroyuki Takeda has been a Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Tokyo since 2001. In April 2017 he was elected the Dean of the School of Science at Tokyo University. Hiroyuki Takeda holds a PhD from Tokyo University. He was a visiting scholar in Cambridge, England (1986-87), a post-doctoral fellow in Urological Dept at Chicago University, USA (1989-1990), a research associate at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) (1990-1993), an associate professor at Nagoya University (1993-1999), a Professor at the National Institute of Genetics (1999-2001). He is a member of the Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists, the Society of Developmental Biology (USA), the International Society of Developmental Biologists, The Molecular Biology Society of Japan and the Zoological Society of Japan (served as President from 2014-16).

His group is working on every aspect of vertebrate development from early axis formation to late organogenesis and epigenetic regulation of developmental key genes, using two model systems, zebrafish and medaka (Japanese killifish). His research topics, for examples, include epigenome and genome of medaka, developmental mutants in organogenesis and left-right asymmetry, neural circuit formation in zebrafish lateral line, zebrafish segmentation clock.