We have been holding a series of events called “Find-Your-Role-Model” Sessions to provide students with opportunities to interact with alumni and global leaders in healthcare sciences. Through these roundtable-style, informal events, we hope students will find role models to help facilitate their career development and become future global leaders.

We are pleased to introduce Dr. Kazuhiro Ito, who is engaged in basic research and education on respiratory and infectious diseases, developing drugs for respiratory infections, and providing entrepreneurship support/education at Imperial College London’s National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) and biotech start-up, UK.
Dr. Ito graduated from the veterinary school of Hokkaido University. After completing a master's degree at the same university, he worked for Sankyo Company, Ltd., developing and researching therapeutic drugs for asthma and allergies while earning a PhD. In 2002, he moved to the NHLI at Imperial College London, where he worked on molecular and pharmacological studies of respiratory diseases. He subsequently co-founded several biotech companies, mainly developing drugs for asthma and COPD as well as respiratory infections. In 2021, he returned to the NHLI as a professor and is currently working in academia and the biotech startup to develop new drugs for chronic respiratory diseases.
 

Topics

1) Personal Background and Vision

 His medical future vision and mission and the factors that influenced him to pursue them
 His role model
 His advice on coping with failures and obstacles
 His career-building after graduating from veterinary school
 His reasons for pursuing drug development

2) Current / Future Activities

 What projects he is currently working on
 Difference in research environments between facilities
 Thoughts on entrepreneurship
 His future goals

3) Advice for Students/ Healthcare Professionals
 The skills and mindset necessary to become a researcher
 Advice for students and young researchers
 Advice on building a career