Yoshiya Oda's Biography

Yoshiya Oda, President, Eisai Inc

Dr. Yoshiya Oda received his BS, MS and Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutical Science from Kyoto University (Japan). He is working in Eisai (Japanese pharmaceutical company) for 25 years. At the same time, Dr. Oda also served as an associate professor at Medical Institute of Bioregulation in Kyushu University, Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo and as a professor at Graduate School of Medicine at Chiba University. Dr. Oda has published 76 original papers, 46 review papers and book chapters, and 139 invited lecture (27 international seminars). Among them, Dr. Oda has made several major contributions to the field of proteomics including metabolic stable isotope labeling method for quantitative proteomics. Dr. ODA has received several awards: Research Award from the Society of Chromatographic Sciences, Japan (1999), Division Award from Pharmaceutical Research Vision in the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (2005), Research Award from the Mass Spectrometry Society of Japan (2005), and Nature-Invitrogen Award (2006). Dr. Oda is currently leading Biomarkers & Personalized Medicine Core Function Unit in Eisai. Dr. Oda has also established preclinical imaging facility in Eisai. The primary purpose of his biomarker group is to provide “Personalized Medicine” to patients and their families. His group contributes to enhance the accuracy of product creation delivering the right products to the right patients based on biomarkers. He believes that biomarkers enable the rapid decision-making with scientific rationales at discovery and early clinical stage, and biomarkers enhance the speed of product creation during the entire drug development process. His group oversees biomarker activity during discovery stage, development stage and clinical stage. Their core technologies are genomics (array, quantitative PCR, nano-String, Ion torrent PGM, siRNA screening, miRNA etc), proteomics/metabolomics (ELISA, multiplex assay, mass spectrometry, HPLC etc), preclinical imaging (MRI, PET, SPECT, CT and optical imaging), tissue/biofluid banking (LIMS, IHC, ISH, Flow cytometer etc) and bioinformatics. He has also in vitro diagnostic group in Japan to develop diagnostic kits for regulatory approval.