What prior experience do you bring that you believe will help to accomplish or address the Society’s current goals and issues?
I have had a career in both laboratory and clinical aspects of several skeletal disorders. I have engaged mainly in translational research leading directly to their treatments and received the 2011 Lawrence Raisz Award. I have also devoted myself to the education of young researchers as a mentor. In fact, members of my lab group have been awarded the ASBMR Young Investigator Award each of the 20 years since 1998. I have been an ASBMR member since 1989, kept attending the annual meeting every year, and willingly served in many and varied capacities within the Society. Besides ASBMR, I have experiences of the board and committee members of ORS (Orthopaedic Research Society) and OARSI (Osteoarthritis Research Society International). As a minority member there, I have performed several activities to popularize the societies in Japan, Korea, and China. This has led to increases in Asian members and industry sponsors.
What would you like to accomplish during your tenure as a volunteer leader?
Since ASBMR has been my “home society” throughout my professional life, I am familiar with the history and recent progress. Although ASBMR is an American domestic society as a matter of form, it is now conceived as the most outstanding and representative international society in the bone and mineral field, suggesting that the Society is now at the crossroads from domestic ASBMR to international “ISBMR”. I view the strategic goals of ASBMR to be the following:
1) To further advance research and treatment of skeletal disorders worldwide
2) To develop, disseminate and exchange what is known on research and care
3) To maintain financial stability from worldwide including industries in many countries
4) To promote the alliance of domestic bone societies, especially in Asian countries (I am not influential to EU societies), with ASBMR.
What are one or two ideas that you would like to implement to address issues facing our membership and the Society?
To achieve the best and equal management for patients with skeletal disorders worldwide independently of the area where they live, we should share the updated knowledge and aim. Concretely, I will direct my energy particularly toward international members through cooperation of the ASBMR ambassadors. First, I would expand co-sponsored symposiums between ASBMR and domestic societies in countries outside of the United States to develop and foster international alliances. Second, I would prepare and distribute newsletters on highlights of the ASBMR annual meeting and on guidelines created by the ASBMR task force, which would be published and widely disseminated worldwide after translation into languages of less represented countries. These activities would also lead to increases not only in international members, but also in industry sponsors and subsequent financial support.
Biographical Information:
I graduated from the University of Tokyo and began my career as an orthopedic surgeon in 1985. In 1991, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Lawrence Raisz at the University of Connecticut as a researcher. It was there that I dedicated my life’s work to ‘disease science’—preclinical translational research that leads directly to the treatment of skeletal disorders such as osteoporosis, bone fractures, periprosthetic osteolysis, ossification of spinal ligaments, and osteoarthritis. Since then, I have pursued a dual career as a ‘surgeon-scientist,’ focusing on both the laboratory and clinical aspects of these disorders. I have published 327 peer-reviewed original articles with a total impact factor of 2,025, in prestigious scientific journals such as Nat Med, Nat Mat, Nature, Science, JCI, Gene Dev, JCB, PNAS, Dev Cell, JBC, and JBMR. Notably, some of these research efforts have already been translated into clinical applications, such as a recombinant agent for fracture healing and a novel artificial joint designed for longevity.
I have been a member of ASBMR since 1989, attending the annual meeting every year and actively serving the Society in various roles, from abstract reviewer to committee member. My service includes terms on the Membership Development Committee (2002-2005), the GAP Awards Committee (2014), and as the Japanese ambassador for the society’s outreach efforts since 2018.
My work has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Lawrence Raisz Award from ASBMR (2011), the Kappa Delta Award from AAOS (2009), the Frank Stinchfield Award from the Hip Society (2006), and the Basic Science Award from OARSI (2006).
I am also deeply committed to the education and mentorship of young researchers. Remarkably, members of my team have received the ASBMR Young Investigator Award every year for two decades since 1998, and three have been honored with the President’s Book Award during this time.