NEWS archive

2026

・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　

・On March 10, Kazu attended and presented at the 農獣スパークキャラバン, an inspiring event that connects research across our university. Many thanks to Dr. Fumi Murakoshi for organising such a wonderful meeting.

・Happy to share the news received yesterday (27^th FEB 2026): I have been awarded JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)!!! While the funding amount is smaller than a typical UK project grant, it is very big to me, as it reflects both the strong support from Japan and the recognition of the work I conducted in the UK. Truly happy 😁

・Our recent review on proteinase biology in osteoarthritis (OA) with Dr David Wilkinson (Liverpool) and Dr Suneel Apte (Cleveland) has been published in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage! https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2026.02.009
A key takeaway: measuring proteinase abundance does not necessarily reflect true proteolytic activity. Our work highlights the importance of focusing on the spatial and temporal regulation of the proteinase “activome” to gain clearer mechanistic insight and to better support biomarker discovery and therapeutic development in OA. We hope this perspective helps address an important blind spot in the field.

・On 20th – 21st FEB, Kazu attended the 38th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Cartilage Metabolism and delivered a talk titled “Endocytic receptor LRP1 in cartilage homeostasis and destruction.” It was his first visit to Hiroshima—a beautiful city and an important, unforgettable place in history, inspiring a heartfelt wish for peace.

・The paper is out! Really excited about this collaborative work on a small matrix molecule that has a big impact on cell adhesion and migration. Big thanks to Dr. Kevin Hamill — my former office buddy from Liverpool — and his amazing team for bringing me into this project https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0338797.

・19th – 21st JAN. Kazu and Dr Lina Hamabe 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!

・Kazu’s first Japanese commentary since returning to Japan has been published in the January 2026 edition of Precision Medicine.

・Our paper on ADAMTS5 exosite inhibitors has been published in Scientific Report https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-29549-3. This is wonderful collaborative work done by teams in Pisa (Italy), Modena (Italy), Surrey (UK), Sheffield (UK) and Tokyo (Japan)!

2025

・A proud supervisor moment, three times over, on 9th DEC 2025.
I wish I could have been there in person, but from Japan I’m sending my heartfelt congratulations to Abdul on completing a very well-deserved PhD, and to Connie and Tom on graduating with an equally well-deserved MRes. Abdul has already published one first-author paper and one co-authored paper, with more on the way. Connie has earned three impressive awards, including the BSMB poster prize, as well as the best project and best presentation awards. Tom’s papers are also on the way to come! Well done to you all, and my very best wishes for your future!

・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 on 21st NOV. I finally accomplished something I’ve wanted to do for a long time: introducing them to my group in Japan! Happy to see my students give such great presentations to them in English!!!

・On 8th NOV, I met Manuel Peña, who I met first time in the UK about 14 years ago and is now the head coach of a professional basketball team in Ehime, in Yokohama, Japan. A truly happy moment, which drives my work.

・On 3^rd -4^th OCT, Kazu visited the Tsukuba Advanced Research Alliance (TARA) Life Science Center for Survival Dynamics and gave a talk about “From Metalloproteinases to Endocytic Receptor LRP1: A Journey Through My Time in the UK”. It was wonderful to catch up with an old friend and to have discussions with the excellent staff and students working there. I have never seen such an international lab in Japan! .

・On 18^th SEP, Kazu gave a talk at the Central Institute for Experimental Medicine and Life Science (公益財団法人実中研) about “関節軟骨から全身の恒常性まで ~エンドサイトーシス受容体LRP1研究の展開~”. It was a great pleasure to meet researchers working on cutting-edge animal research and to see the amasing facilities.

・Kazu attended the British Society for Matrix Biology Autumn Meeting in Surrey, UK, where I gave both an oral and a poster presentation entitled “Novel insights into the multifaceted and tissue-specific roles of the endocytic receptor LRP1”. Kazu also co-chaired an exciting session about ‘Novel approaches to investigate the Matrisome’. What made me especially happy was that our Master’s student, Constance McManus, received a poster presentation award. Huge congratulations, Connie!

・Our M1 student Mei Kanakubo published a review on microbiome in アグリバイオ (https://www.fujisan.co.jp/product/1281697603/new/). Well done!

・On 8th and 9th August 2025, Kazu attended at 第30回日本病態プロテアーゼ学会学術集会 and made a poster presentation entitled “細胞外分子除去システムによるプロテアーゼ活性制御とその破綻による組織破壊”. It felt so special to see my poster displayed right next to one about the amazing project I was part of at the very start of my research journey!

・Kazu has successfully secured his first JSPS grant, Research Activity Start-up (研究活動スタート支援)! Happy!!

・We had a party to celebrate our success in protein purification and to wish Mana, Aoi, and Riyu the best of luck on their entrance exams for the Master’s program!

・Kazu and Dr Salvatore Santamaria (Surrey, UK)’s book chapter “ADAMTS5” is published in Handbook of Proteolytic Enzymes (Fourth Edition): Metallopeptidases.

・On July 15th, we were pleased to welcome Prof. Surya Nauli from Chapman University (USA) and Visiting Prof. Tomoko Obara to our laboratory and institute. We wish for the best outcome for our application!

・Kazu presented and gave a talk about “the role of LRP1 in lung fibrosis development” at the 57th annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Matrix Biology and Medicine in Osaka, Japan.

・On May 16th, I welcomed my first memorial visitor, Dr. Kazuhiro Ooi from the Graduate School of Medical Sciences at Kanazawa University.

・Mei Kanakubo, a masters student, joined my group. Welcome!

・14th-15th April: Kazu presented at the British Society for Matrix Biology meeting in Nottingham. What a fantastic meeting organised by my friend Dr Anna Piccinini!

・11th April: my PhD student Abdulrahman successfully defended his thesis. Well deserved!

・1st April, two undergraduate students, Aoi Suzuki and Riyu Fujisawa joined my group!

・21st Match: Kazu co-organised SANTO Project International Symposium on Osteoarthritis and Cartilage at Kanazawa University in Japan.

・Profs George Bou-Gharios and Andy Pitsillides came to Japan to attend our symposium!

・1st March: Kazu embarked on a new role as an Associate Professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology!