Events

On March 25th, as cherry blossoms bloomed across Japan, we celebrated the graduation of our wonderful students. Among them were our two Master’s graduates, Chisako Nomura and Yanrongxu Guo, as well as three undergraduate graduates, Riyu Fujisawa, Mana Nakagawa, and Aoi Suzuki. Congratulations to each of you and we wish you all the very best in your future endeavours!
From March 15th to 18th, Kazu made his first visit to Jeju National University (his first time in South Korea!) to deliver a seminar at Jeju Medical School and to strengthen collaboration between our universities through the FLOuRISH program. The visit was a great success and marks the beginning of a promising future partnership between the two institutions. Many thanks to all the wonderful people I met in Jeju. Special thanks go to Dr. Kim Jeongtae for organising such an excellent program throughout my visit. Link to the university website https://www.tuat.ac.jp/NEWS/visit/20260417_01.html
19th – 21st JAN, we hosted wonderful visitors from Jejyu National University, South Korea. Many TUAT students took part and truly enjoyed this exciting international joint university programme. Thank you very much, Dr Hyohoon Jeong — we hope there will be many more opportunities like this to come!
On 8th JAN, we welcomed our first guest of the year, Dr Nodoka Iwasaki from the Royal Veterinary College (UK), who visited our lab/institute and gave a talk. Her exciting journey from Japan to the UK inspired us greatly!
We had an end-of-year party at a nearby Chinese restaurant to celebrate everyone.
Merry Christmas to you all, and best wishes for a fantastic 2026!
21 November 2025 — It was so special for me to welcome my mentors, Hideaki and Gill — the people who guided me during my time in the UK — here in Japan.
I finally accomplished something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: introducing them to my group in Japan!
I was so happy to see my students give such great presentations to them in English!!!
8 November 2025 — Moments like this drive my work every day.
About 14 years ago, I met Manuel Peña in the UK — we became friends but eventually lost touch.
Last Saturday, we finally reconnected here in Japan!
Manuel is now the head coach of a professional basketball team in Ehime, which made this reunion possible.
A truly happy moment.
21 July 2025 — We enjoyed a very Japanese nagashi-sōmen party with wonderful people, including Prof. Madoka Nakai, Prof. Eriko Suzuki and their group members, Dr. Fumiaki Mochizuki, Komachi-san, Natori-san, and many more. My family also joined and had a fantastic time — you can’t see them in the photo, but yes, they were there!
Grateful to catch up with my two former mentors, Prof. Kaoru Miyazaki and Prof. Shouichi Higashi, at my welcome-back party in Yokohama. It’s hard to believe 17 years have passed since my farewell party before moving to the UK — but it feels like we haven’t changed much, have we?
On May 16th, I welcomed my first memorial visitor, Dr. Kazuhiro Ooi from the Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Kanazawa University. We first met in Liverpool in 2017, and since then, we have been actively collaborating on research related to osteoarthritis in jaw joints.
On May 8th, we held a welcome party for the students who recently joined our group. Daimon (だいもん) — what a classic pub! It always provide a great atmosphere.
Proud to be a supervisor of Dr Abdulrahman Gremida. A big thanks to Dr Suzanne Eldridge (Queen Mary University of London) and Dr Kevin Hamill (Liverpool, was sharing an office with me!) for being such great examiners. Fortunate to have Prof George Bou-Gharios in our supervisory team.