Naoyuki Taniguchi
Professor Taniguchi graduated from the Hokkaido University School of Medicine and obtained M.D. in 1967, and completed the doctoral course of medicine at the Graduate School of Hokkaido University and obtained Ph.D in 1972. He was then appointed an assistant professor at the Hokkaido University School of Medicine in 1975 and appointed a visiting associate professor, Department of Biochemistry Cornell University Medical College, New York at the laboratory of Dr. Alton Meister between 1976 and 1977. He was appointed an associate professor, Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University in 1977 and later appointed an associate professor, Biochemistry Laboratory Cancer Institute, Hokkaido University School of Medicine in 1980 at the laboratory of Dr. Akira Makita. He was appointed as a Professor and Chairman, Department of Biochemistry, Osaka University Medical School in 1986. He received a Grant in Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas entitled "Sugar remodeling and cellular communications" from the Ministry of Education, Science Sports and Culture, Japan between 1998 and 2000. He is an honorary member for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He will receive International Glycoconjugate Organization (IGO) Award, and Docteur Honoris Causa of the University Henri Poincaré in 2001. The president for the Annual Meeting of the 74th Japanese Biochemical Society in 2001. Editorial board members: J. Biol. Chem., Glycobiology, Glycoconjugate J., Biochem. Biophy. Res. Commun. (from March 2002).
I consider it an honor to be asked by the Secretariat of the Glycoforum at Seikagaku Corporation to organize and serve as an editor for this "Glycoforum" website. The first session, entitled "Science of Hyaluronan today", edited by Drs. Vincent Hascall and Masaki Yanagishita, was a resounding success and this forum has been already well recognized by many glycobiologists and glycotechnologists, as well as by the wider research community. The intent of "Beyond glycogenes" in this series is to present short articles on current, exciting research activities by distinguished scientists in glycobiology of the post - genomic era. I hope this series will be informative and that it may open a new avenue in the era of functional glycomic research in the 21st century. Finally, I wish to express sincere thanks to those who will be writing excellent review articles and to the secretariat of the Glycoforum, in particular, Mr.Tadashi Harada for his enormous assistance in making this website possible.
