In the 40th Find Your Role Model session, we invited Dr. Noriyuki Kasahara, who is an alumnus of TMDU and currently a professor at the University of Miami, as our guest. He is a professor of Cell Biology and Pathology, Co-leader of the viral oncology program at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and adjunct professor at UCLA where he was Director of the Vector Core Facility.
In this session, he mainly talked about his career path, his latest research, and the benefits of working in the U.S. as a researcher.
He introduced his latest research, a new medicine which transforms into an anti-cancer drug by enzymes released from tumor cells after uptake of the medicine. Participants seemed to be highly interested in this topic. This medicine is only activated inside tumor, therefore side effects are relatively low. Moreover, therapeutic effect of this medicine is double that of previous treatments. This medicine is now under clinical trial, but it is expected to be available for use in two or three years. We realized the importance of medical research, which can save millions of patients.

He shared with us his experiences in the U.S.. He also told us about the advantages of California universities; we can observe several research labs before deciding which to go to, and there is no hierarchy in research groups compared with those in Japanese universities.

After the presentation, he spent a long time on Q&A, and encouraged each of us with his answers. Dr. Kawabata, who decided to do research abroad when he was a fifth-year medical student at TMDU, said that it is important to make our own way with strong beliefs, even if the challenges are hard. I believe students learned not only how to be a researcher, but also how to live as a leader who attracts many coworkers.

HSLP Student Host