Introduction of leader:
Laboratory of Innovative Cancer Therapeutics

Japanese

Team leader: Akira Nakagawara, MD, PhD (Director of CCCRI)

Profile:

Akira Nakagawara graduated from Kyushu University School of Medicine in 1972, and took the courses of general and pediatric surgeries. He treated the patient with neuroblastoma regressing spontaneously that became his life work to unveil its molecular mechanisms. He decided to switch his work from clinic to basic research and went again to USA in 1990 to work on molecular and genomic analyses of neuroblastoma. He returned to Japan at Chiba Cancer Center Research Institute in 1995.

Detailed information(/44KB)

2002-2006　President, Steering Committee of Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Association (ANRA)
2005　President, 21st Japanese Society of Pediatric Oncology (JSPO)
2008　President, 13th Advances in Neuroblastoma Research (ANR2008)
2009　Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund Prize

Fields of specialty:

Development and carcinogenesis; Cancer genome analysis; Translational research of childhood cancers; spontaneous regression of neuroblastoma

Main publications:

• Chen Y, et al. Nature 2008; 455: 971-974.
• Munirajan AK, et al. J Biol Chem 2008; 283: 24426-24434.
• Ohira M, et al. Cancer Cell 2005; 7: 337-350
• Nakagawara A, et al. N Engl J Med 1993; 328: 847-854
• Nakagawara A & Ikeda K. Lancet 1987; 1: 559

All 280 publications in English(/404KB)

Comments/Future dream:

My future dream is to find out the fundamental principles of molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis in relation to normal development, from which the mysterious issue of "Random and Program" in development will be solved. Hopefully, this approach will help to conquer cancers.