Rate My Professor Yasuhiko Kizuka

Yasuhiko Kizuka is Professor (Vice Director) at the Institute for Glyco-core Research (iGCORE) and Integrated Glyco-Molecular Science Center (iGMOL) at Gifu University. He earned a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2004, a Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2006, and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2009, all from Kyoto University, where he was supervised by Dr. Shogo Oka and held a JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC2) from 2007. His postdoctoral training took place at the Disease Glycomics Team at RIKEN under Dr. Naoyuki Taniguchi, progressing from Postdoctoral Researcher (2009–2012) to Special Postdoctoral Researcher (2012–2015) and Researcher (2015–2017). He joined Gifu University in 2017 as Associate Professor at G-CHAIN, advancing to Associate Professor (Director) at iGMOL/iGCORE in 2021–2022 and Professor (Director) from 2022 onward. Concurrent roles have included part-time lectureships at Ochanomizu University and Kyoto University, visiting positions at Fukushima Medical University, Osaka International Cancer Institute, Hiroshima University, and others, as well as directorship advisor roles at iGCORE.

Kizuka’s research centers on glycobiology, focusing on the biosynthesis, functions, and visualization of glycans in cellular and disease contexts. He has received awards including the Suzuki Koichi Memorial Award and Young Investigator Award from the Japanese Biochemical Society, the Young Investigator Award and Poster Award from the Japanese Society of Carbohydrate Research, and the Research Incentive Award from RIKEN. He serves on editorial boards for journals such as BBA General Subjects, Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology, Journal of Biochemistry, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Glycoconjugate Journal. His laboratory belongs to the Faculty of Applied Biological Sciences at Gifu University and participates in national projects including the Human Glycome Atlas Project.