Leadership

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  Masuhiro Kato, Ph.D.

  Representative Director and President

  After spending 19 years conducting drug discovery research at Sumitomo Pharmaceuticals, he worked with colleagues to successfully discover an antibiotic that is still effective and widely used over 30 years later. He also took on roles in clinical development and as a European representative. In 1996, he joined Zeneca Plc. (later AstraZeneca Plc.) at Alderley Park in the UK as an international regulatory manager. He was in charge of developing a global regulatory strategy to integrate Japan‘s development program into the global program. As a result, he achieved the highest number of Japanese regulatory approvals in a year and enjoyed a compound annual growth rate of nearly 10% during his tenure as President from 2004 to 2011. In 2013, he joined the University of Tokyo as a project professor in the Translational Research Initiative. In 2018, he joined the new start-up bio-venture MiraBiologics as representative director and president.
  Graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University
  M.Sc.Eng. from the Tokyo Institute of Technology
  Ph.D. from the Gunma University Faculty of Medicine
  Harvard Advanced Management Program

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  Hiroaki Suga, Ph.D.

  Director and Professor at the University of Tokyo

  Dr. Suga has been a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Graduate School of Science of the University of Tokyo since 2010. He received a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1994). He was a tenured associate professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1997–2003) and a professor at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology of the University of Tokyo (2003–2010). He is the recipient of the Akabori Memorial Award 2014, Max Bergmann Medal 2016, Vincent du Vigneaud Award 2019, ETH Zurich Prelog Medal 2022, Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 2020, Hisayuki Matsuo Award 2022, and Wolf Prize in Chemistry 2023. He also delivered the TY Shen Lecture at MIT in 2022. Additionally, he is the founder of PeptiDream Inc. and MiraBiologics Inc. in Japan.

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  Junichi Takagi, Ph.D.

  Director and Professor at the Institute for Protein Research of Osaka University

  Dr. Takagi has been a professor at the Institute for Protein Research of Osaka University since 2003. He received a Ph.D. at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1990 and was appointed an assistant professor at the same university. He served as an instructor at the Harvard Medical School Department of Pathology (1999–2001) and as an assistant professor at the Department of Pediatrics (2002–2003). His research focus is elucidating the mechanisms of cell signaling by employing structural information as well as structure-based protein and antibody engineering. In 2017, he co-founded MiraBiologics Inc.

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  Jun Igarashi, Ph.D.

  Director

  As chief operating officer, Dr. Igarashi oversees and is responsible for the substantive business operations conducted by MiraBiologics Inc. Until 2016, he was a researcher involved in the production and quality control of oligosaccharides at GlyTech Inc., a bio-venture company. During that time, he was engaged in engineering using glycochemistry. He obtained a master’s degree, a license as a pharmacist at Okayama University, and a Ph.D. at the Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Tokyo.

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  Ryo Fujinami, Ph.D.

  Outside Director, Shinsei Capital Partners

  Dr. Fujinami joined Shinsei Corporate Investment in 2016 and Shinsei Capital Partners in 2019. Previously, he worked at Abbott Japan, where for 15 years he developed in vitro diagnostics for cancer, infectious, metabolic, and cardiac diseases. He holds a BS degree in engineering from Osaka City University and an M.Sc.Eng. from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

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  Tadashi Aoyagi

  Full-Time Auditor

  After graduating from university, Mr. Aoyagi worked at Mitsubishi Research Institute, where he consulted on energy and environmental policies and social consensus building. After serving as director and senior research fellow, he became an auditor in 2006.
  He contributed to the improvement of corporate governance of Mitsubishi Research Institute for its listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
  In April 2018, he was appointed as an auditor of MiraBiologics Inc.

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  Masahito Kamijo

  Auditor

  Mr. Kamijo worked for 44 years in the banking sector until 2015. At Resona Bank, he was managing director of the Corporate Finance Division (2007–2009) and president and chairman of the board at Saitama Resona Bank (2009–2015).
  Thereafter, he was appointed a board member of three listed companies and contributed to improving corporate governance and formulating their succession plans.
  He joined MiraBiologics Inc. in 2021 in the role of outside auditor. He works to check and advise on management from an auditor’s perspective.

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  Yuichi Kubo

  Executive Officer

  As an executive officer, Mr. Kubo focuses on the R&D pipeline strategy and its expansion through external research collaboration and business development and licensing. Mr. Kubo joined MiraBiologics Inc. in 2021.
  Before joining MiraBiologics Inc., he worked for Daiichi Sankyo for more than 40 years in the areas of clinical development, translational research and development, regulatory affairs, intellectual properties, business development, and expanding global access in Japan, Europe, and the United States.
  Mr. Kubo holds a master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Tokyo and currently serves as program manager for exploratory research related to neuromuscular disease funded by the Japan Agency of Medical Research and Development.
  

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  Manami Morishita

  Executive Officer

  Ms. Morishita joined the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan in 1990, engaging in corporate lending and securities management. After working as a secretary in Hiroaki Suga’s laboratory at the University of Tokyo, she served as a board member of a startup bilingual preschool to boost corporate development. After working as an advisor for other startup companies, she joined MiraBiologics in 2017. She graduated from Keio University with a Bachelor of Law degree and is also the director of BLUE FOR JAPAN, an organization that supports children in need of social care.