Meet the Experts Transporter Conference Tokyo 2017

KATO Yukio, PhD

Biography

Dr. Yukio Kato graduated University of Tokyo in 1990 and received Ph.D.

degree in 1998. He was appointed Research Associate in University of Tokyo in 1993, Visiting Fellow in National Institutes of Health, USA in 2001, Associate Professor in Kanazawa University in 2002, and Full Professor in Kanazawa University in 2008. He was also assigned in 2012 to a Visiting Research Staff in Sugiyama Laboratory, RIKEN.

His major research interests are transporter-mediated drug disposition, efficacy and toxicity, transporter-related inflammation and diseases, and protein-protein interaction and functional regulation of xenobiotic transporters. He published 159 original research articles including 5 Nature journal series papers, and 13 review articles.

KRAJCSI Péter, PhD

Biography

Dr. Peter Krajcsi has extensive experience in biotechnology. He received his PhD in biochemistry from University of Szeged and later a Doctor of Sciences degree in biological sciences from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In his academic career he has focused on three major topics (i) steroid receptors (ii) molecular biology of adenoviruses and (iii) apoptosis. For the past 13 years he has been working in R&D management positions for small and medium size enterprises in drug research and gene therapy in Hungary as well as in the United States. Since 2002 he is the Chief Scientific Officer of Solvo Biotechnology. At Solvo the focus is on membrane transporters and utilization of membrane transporter technology in drug discovery and development as well as in development of diagnostics tools for cancer and inflammatory diseases.

KUSUHARA Hiroyuki, PhD

Biography

Hiroyuki Kusuhara received his BSc, MSc and PhD (Pharmaceutical Sciences) from the University of Tokyo (Japan).

Hiroyuki started his carrier as an academic scientist in The University of Tokyo as Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences (1998). He was promoted to Associate Professor (2004) and Professor (2012) of Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo. He is currently professor and chair of Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacokinetics at Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Hiroyuki’s major research interest encompass interindividual variability in human drug

Disposition, specifically: identification of drug transporters in the tissue distribution, and clearance; pharmacokinetics; modeling and simulation; in vitro-in vivo extrapolation; PK imaging; drug-drug interactions; and metabolomics. He is the author of 180 research papers in these areas.

Member of ISSX since 2013. Most recent ISSX activities include Scientific Affairs Committee (2014-2016), and Nominations Committee (2014-2016). Hiroyuki has experience as Council and Director in Japanese societies; JSSX Council (2004-present), Director (2014-2017); APSTJ Council (2010-present), Director (2017-present). Editorial Board membership: Drug Metabolism & Disposition; Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences; Biopharmaceutics and Drug Disposition. Society membership: ISSX, ASCPT, and Japanese Societies; JSSX, JSCPT, APSTJ, JPS and JSDDS.

SAHI Jasminder, PhD

Biography

Jasminder Sahi obtained a Ph.D. degree (Pharmacognosy, 1991) from Panjab University, India and then participated in a post-doctoral program in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois at Chicago.  She started her career in the Pharmaceutical Industry in the Department of Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism (Parke Davis R&D), which was subsequently acquired by Pfizer Global Research and Development.  In 2006, she joined a new venture (CellzDirect) as the Vice President R&D.  In 2012 she moved to Shanghai China, as Head of DMPK for GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development and in 2015 made the transition to Sanofi R&D leading the DMPK efforts in the Asia Pacific region.   Jasminder’s research focus is on transporters and induction of drug metabolizing enzymes, using primary hepatocytes. While her initial forays into transporter research involved ion transport to understand CFTR, at Pfizer she changed her focus to xenobiotic transporters, with the goal of improving drug disposition, delivery and safety.   She has worked extensively with hepatic and renal transporters as well as the blood-brain-barrier.  She is an elected member of the ISSX council, a reviewer for six journals and has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications. 

SAKATA, Takeshi

Biography

Takeshi Sakata graduated Toho university Department of Biology in 1989 and received PhD degree from Kyorin University School of Medicine in 2004.  He worked for a Japanese CRO company, Fuji Biomedix as a researcher and study director of the mutagenesis studies from 1989 to 2002, also as a researcher of development of transporter assay systems and a diagnosis system for cancer using an amino acid transporter until 2009.

After short experience of sales activity, he went to the UK to study at Bangor University Business School, and received MBA in 2011.

Since 2012, he has been dealing with Japanese customers as Business Development Manager and Account Manager at SOLVO Biotechnology Inc.

SIN Jae-Gook, MD, PhD

Biography

Dr. Jae-Gook Shin is currently a Professor and Chair of the department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology and founding Director of the Pharmacogenomics Research Center at Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea. He is also Director of the Global Center of Excellence in Clinical Trials at Inje University Busan Paik Hospital. Dr. Shin is currently serving as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Korean Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (KSCPT).

Dr. Shin received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Seoul National University School of Medicine in 1992, and MD degree from Inje University College of Medicine in 1986. Dr. Shin completed 2 years Clinical Pharmacology fellow training in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center, in Washington DC as a 1997 recipient of the Merck Sharp & Dohme International Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology funded by the Merck Foundation.

Dr. Shin has published over 280 papers in clinical pharmacology including Pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine, clinical PK/PD, DM/PK and drug interaction, PK/PD modeling, and other clinical pharmacology areas. He has served as an editorial board member for several renowned international publications including Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics(CP&T), British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology(BJCP), Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, Pharmacogenomics J, Frontiers in Pharmacogenomics, Personalized Medicine, and more. Dr. Shin has served as Chair of the Organizing Committee for several national and international meetings, including the International Symposium on Pharmacogenomics and the 11th International ISSX meeting. Dr. Shin has also served for many academic societies and national/regional committees such as the IUPHAR Clinical Pharmacology Council and Pharmacogenetics Committee, the Korean Association of Clinical Trial Centers, and the Korean Network of South-Eastern Regional Clinical Trial Organization. He is a member of the trustee board of directors for the Korean National Enterprise for Clinical trials. Dr. Shin has received several awards including the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies’ Outstanding Research in Science and Technology Award and the Korean Society of Medical Science’s 7th Pfizer Medical Research.

TAMAI Ikumi, PhD

Biography

Education and Professional Experiences;

BS, Kanazawa University 1982, Ph.D; University of Tokyo 1988; Post-doctoral Fellow, University of Chicago and University of Michigan (1989-1991); Professor, Tokyo University of Science (2002-2008); Kanazawa University, Institute of Medical, Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences 2008-present. Head, Venture Business Laboratory, Kanazawa University (2014 – present).

Professional Affiliations:

Japanese Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (JSSX); Academy of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, Japan (APSTJ); Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (PSJ); Japanese Society of Gout and Nucleic Acid Metabolism; American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS); American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET); International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX).

Board of Committee:

Committee Member of Food Safety Commission, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan (2006 - present); Associate Editor, Biopharmaceutics and Drug Disposition (2009 - present); Editor, Pharmaceutical Research (2017 - present); Councilor, JSSX (2006 – 2013, 2017 - present); Councilor, ISSX (2010 - 2013); Editor in Chief, Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) (2010 - 2013); Associate Editor, Biological Pharmaceutical Bulletin. (2006 - 2008); Editorial Board Member for Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Molecular Pharmaceutics, Pharmaceutical Research and Drug Metabolism and Disposition.

Research of Interest:

Transporters related to Drug-Drug Interaction, Drug-Food Interaction, Drug-induced Toxicity, Regulation of Uric Acid and Prostaglandins, Drug Absorption and Pharmacokinetics.

TERASAKI Tetsuya, PhD

Biography

Dr. Tetsuya Terasaki graduated Kanazawa University in 1977 and received Ph.D. degree from University of Tokyo in 1982. He was appointed Full Professor of Tohoku University in 1996 and the University Distinguished Professor of Tohoku University in 2008. He received the Ebert Prize from American Pharmaceutical Association in 1985, the Meritorious Manuscript Award from American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in 1996 and 2010, together with three Research Achievement Awards. In April 2013, he received the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, bestowed by the Government of Japan to the most highly honored scientists. His major research interests are the molecular pharmacology of blood-brain barrier function and the pharmacoproteomics. He published extensively in journals, with 309 original research articles and 70 review articles and contributed chapters to over 50 books.

YONEZAWA Atsushi PhD

Biography

Dr. Atsushi Yonezawa has extensive experience in basic & clinical pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics. He received his undergraduate degree and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Kyoto University. He has been working for Kyoto University Hospital as a scientist and a pharmacist. His research focuses on three major topics (i) Molecular characterization and genetic disease of novel riboflavin transporters RFVTs (ii) Efficacy and adverse effect of clinical Drugs via organic cation transporters OCTs and MATEs and (iii) Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of therapeutic antibodies.

ZINK Daniele, PhD

Biography

Daniele Zink studied Biology at the University of Bielefeld (Germany) and earned her PhD from the University of Heidelberg in 1995 where she worked in the fields of developmental biology and epigenetics. After becoming a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Human Genetics of the University of Heidelberg, she was appointed in 1996 as Research Assistant Professor at the Institute of Anthropology and Human Genetics of the Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) of Munich, Germany, where she completed her Habilitation in Cell Biology in 2001. In 2001, she was awarded a grant from the Volkswagen-Foundation for the funding of a Junior Group. She was head of the Junior Group located at the LMU (Department of Biology II) until she moved to the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore in 2007, as Team Leader and Principal Research Scientist. Her research at IBN focuses on the development of predictive models for in vitro toxicology/nanotoxicology. In addition, she performs research on stem cells, which is directed towards applications in predictive toxicology and the development of cost-effective fully synthetic cultivation systems for industrial applications. The work on predictive in vitro models has been awarded by the US Society of Toxicology and has won the prestigious LUSH Prize (2016, Science Category). The predictive in vitro models are used in collaboration with the US Environmental Protection Agency for the prediction of the human nephrotoxicity of ToxCast compounds. Zink holds 12 patents/patent applications, is Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports and has > 70 publications, which include publications in Nature, Nature Reviews Cancer, Archives of Toxicology and Nanotoxicology.

ZUO Joan, PhD

Biography

Professor Joan Zuo holds a B. Sc. and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and has had over 20 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics fields. Since she joined the School of Pharmacy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Jan. 2000, Prof. Zuo has secured over 18 million continuous supports from various grant agencies such as University Grant Council, Innovation Technology Foundation, Food and Health Bureau in Hong Kong SAR as PI to support her series investigations on biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics of both western drug molecule and herbal bioactive components. Her research achievements have been applied to areas such as improvement of quality control and delivery of western drugs as well as herbal products, elucidation or even prediction of potential herb/drug interactions in vivo. Prof. Zuo’s research findings in the above fields have generated over 200 original research and conference papers and patents of USA, China, Hong Kong and Malaysia. In Hong Kong, Prof. Zuo is serving in the Pharmacy & Poison’s Board, Pharmacovigilance Committee, TCM Research and Development Committee and Proprietary Traditional Chinese Medicine Registration Committee at the government of Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China. Internationally, Prof. Zuo has served as nomination committee member for International Society of Xenobiotics (ISSX) and is currently the regional editor of European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and editorial board member for  Biopharmaceutics and Drug Dispositions, Xenobiotica, Chinese Medicine and, grant reviewer for China and Macau, and journal reviewer for more than 50 international peer reviewed journals.