A day for Kojiro Maeda (Doctoral Program)

I walk along the main street on campus to go to school.
The main street is 1.2km long and runs south-north from the Clark Memorial Student center to the Kita 18-jo Gate. Sightseeing spots such as the bust of Dr. William S. Clark, the Hokkaido University Museum and the Ono Pond dot the main street. The Graduate School of Medicine is 760m from the Clark Memorial Student Center, and the roundabout with a fountain at the entrance is a well-known landmark.
Every morning, I go to the Northeast Research Building of the Graduate School of Medicine where my lab is located, I walk along the path beside the entrance to the Alumni Hall “Frate”, and I start my day with checking for emails.

I completed the master’s program of the Department of Cancer-Related Genes of the Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine (currently the Department of Stem Cell Biology), and have been in the doctoral program. Now I am engaged in the comparison of domestic and international data packages of orphan drugs. Because I spend much time at my desk, I have arranged it so I am comfortable. I am also in charge of updating the department website.

We communicate with researchers of other collaborating universities through television conferences. I have fulfilling and productive work where I am able to gain valuable and interesting information and knowledge about a wide variety of fields as well as increase my knowledge of regulatory science matters.

Time permitting, I go to eat out with my older brother, who is also a student of the Graduate School of Medicine and knows many good eating places around Hokkaido University. He helped me with useful advice before I decided to go on to the graduate school.

One of the features of our department Journal club is the excellent environment where we are instructed directly from professors both through the journal club and the work at rehearsals for poster presentations. Last year I made a presentation of “Important points in clinical development of orphan drugs to treat extremely rare medical conditions” at the annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. This experience was very valuable as it was first time for me to make a presentation in the regulatory science field.

I participate in an internet based study meeting every other week with other researchers of Hokkaido University Hospital Clinical Research and Medical Innovation Center and Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and other universities. This is a good opportunity for me to study with many people because my research team at the department is made up of only two people, the professor and me.

I wish to make sure I will be involved in some kind of regulatory science after the completion of the doctoral program.