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Director’s Message

I am very honored and excited to have an opportunity to join Sasaki Institute as the 11th Director.


I started a carrier as a pathologist and almost all the mentors of mine were students of Dr. Tomizo Yoshida (the second director of Sasaki Institute) whose work with Dr. Takaoki Sasaki (the founder of the Institute) achieved in this institute is a great milestone in the history of cancer research. They together held a UICC (Union for International Cancer Control) World Cancer Congress in Tokyo in 1966 and made the presence of Japanese scientists felt in the world cancer researchers’ communities.


When I spent a post-doctoral training in NCI, I remember, Dr. Tsuyoshi Kakefuda, one of the disciples of Prof. Yoshida, who had served as a coordinator of US-Japan cancer research relationship for decades and was also a pioneering molecular pathologist of carcinogenesis, talked a lot about the episodes of and with Dr. Yoshida and his contemporaries usually over drinks with us, young NIH post-docs. An imaginal personality of Dr. Yoshida has been formed in the minds of the generations of Japanese scientists and the legacy remains in the community of Japanese cancer researchers.


When we reflect on the history of Sasaki Institute, we are invigorated by the enthusiasm, strong will, both idealism and realism of the founders and scientists in this institute on various occasions including predicaments.


Together with the president of the foundation Dr. Takashi Sasaki, I will make the utmost effort so that Sasaki Institute continues to be one of the prestigious nodes of the world cancer research network. I hope all the members join us to achieve this goal embraced by the forerunners for centuries.


Haruhiko Sugimura, M.D., Ph.D.


Director

Sasaki Institute

Sasaki Foundation

Former Sasaki Institute Building (1938-1989)
Former Sasaki Institute Building (1938-1989)
Drs Takaoki Sasaki (right) and Tomizo Yoshida (1930)

 

Drs Takaoki Sasaki (right) and Tomizo Yoshida (left) (1930)