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National Cancer Center Japan is pleased to announce that Akihide Yoshimi, MD, PhD who leads the Cancer RNA Research Unit has been selected by the American Society of Hematology (ASH) to receive the 2022 ASH Global Research Award. Akihide Yoshimi is one of 13 talented early-career investigators chosen for this honor.

Through the ASH Global Research Award, ASH helps ease this difficult transition for researchers outside the United States and Canada by providing partial salary or other support during that critical period, allowing recipients to pursue research projects that will help them get to the next step in their careers.

The 13 researchers selected for this year represent 12 countries: Australia, Brazil, China, France, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and Tanzania.

Akihide Yoshimi will receive research support for his project on Understanding and targeting aberrant RNA processing in hematologic malignancies.

"It is a great honor to be selected for the ASH Global Research Award." said Akihide Yoshimi MD, PhD, Section Head of Cancer RNA Research Unit, National Cancer Center Research Institute. "We will keep working on the basic and translation researches to deeply understand and therapeutically target aberrant RNA processing in leukemias."

"The ASH Global Research Award supports future leaders in hematology around the world and fosters scientific collaboration across borders," said 2022 ASH President Jane N. Winter, MD, of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "These deserving awardees receive support to conduct their research in their home countries and to contribute to the global hematology research workforce."

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) (www.hematology.org) is the world's largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. For more than 60 years, the Society has led the development of hematology as a discipline by promoting research, patient care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology.

Akihide Yoshimi
Research Achievements
Akihide Yoshimi, MD, PhD has been working to clarify the disease mechanisms of hematologic malignancies with aberrant RNA splicing by integrating analyses of big data derived from patients and phenotypic and molecular analyses on several mouse models and cellular models. In addition, he performed a pre-clinical study for a novel clinical-grade spliceosome inhibitor, which provided a scientific basis for the ongoing clinical study and identified biomarkers and molecular mechanisms about how the drug preferentially kills leukemic cells with mutations in genes encoding splicing factors. His current researches are focused on a wide variety of cancers as well as novel technologies to deeply understand the aberrant RNA processing, and drug discovery.

Positions and Employment
Mar, 2003 Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, MD
Jun, 2003 Junior/Senior Resident, The University of Tokyo Hospital and
the Kanto Medical Center NTT, Tokyo, Japan
Apr, 2009 Special Fellow, Japan Society of Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Mar, 2011 Graduate School of Medicine,
The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, PhD
Apr, 2011 Assistant Professor, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Jul, 2015 Visiting Investigator, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,
New York, NY, USA
Apr, 2016 Overseas Research Fellow,
Japan Society of Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Jul, 2018 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Special Fellow,
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
Aug, 2018 Senior Research Scientist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,
New York, NY, USA
Jul, 2020 Section Head, Cancer RNA Research Unit,
National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Apr, 2022 Visiting Professor, Kitasato University School of Science