1. How has your research progressed since winning the Young Investigator Award in 2006?
After winning the Young Investigator Award (YIA) in 2006, I investigated the association between bone marrow-derived (vascular progenitor) cells and pulmonary vascular bed under pulmonary hypertension, and I have confirmed that unlike systemic vascular bed, bone marrow-derived cells little participate in pulmonary arterial remodeling under pulmonary hypertension (Circulation. 2007). Now, I try to identify and characterize vascular progenitor cells, which participate in systemic vascular diseases.
2. How has winning the Young Investigator Award in 2006 affected your career?
I assumed an assistant professor of the department of cardiovascular medicine at University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine in 2008/4. I guess that winning the YIA has helped me in my career.
3. What are your plans for the future?
I am going to pursue basic and clinical cardiovascular medicine. Particularly, I am interested in the roles of tissue stem cells and/or vascular progenitor cells in several cardiovascular diseases.
4. What do you feel is one of the most exciting areas of stem cell research today?
What I feel is one of the most exciting areas of stem cell research is paradigm shift in defining vascular endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). Yoder MC et al have demonstrated that the cells defined as EPCs in the commonly-used “EPC culture assay” are actually mostly myeloid cells and that newly-identified endothelial colony-forming cells are rare circulating EPCs with proliferative potential and vessel forming activity in vivo (Blood. 2007).
5. What advice would you give to other young investigators in the field today?
I would like to advise other young investigators the following: First, once you start it, you should do it to the last. Secondly, you should do several studies at the same time rather than only one study.
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