Professor Shigetaka Asano: extraordinary Japanese haematologist and bon vivant February 7, 1943 to August 12, 2020

摘要

Prof. Shigetaka Asano was born in Yamaguchi prefecture,Japan on February 7, 1943 and died on August 12, 2020,age 77 years. In 1968 he graduated from the Faculty ofMedicine, The University of Tokyo. This was an excep-tional year. Three other distinguished Japanese haematolo-gists, Profs. Mine Harada, Masao Tomonaga and YasuoIkeda graduated the same year and were friendly lifelongrivals. To appreciate their value consider a 1968 Petrus sellsfor € 3890. Prof. Asano did his post-graduate training in the3rd Department of Internal Medicine and earned his Ph.D.from the Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo in1978. After this he travelled to Australia to study at theWalter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research withProfs. Donald Metcalf, Ian Mackay, and Gustav Nossalwhere he studied on in vitro growth of cancer infiltratinghuman T-cells in humans. He returned to Japan as Lecturer(Senior Assistant Professor) of Internal Medicine at theHospital of the Institute of Medical Science, The Universityof Tokyo (IMSUT) under Prof. Shiro Miwa in 1980 wherehe started lifelong projects focused on granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and haematopoietic cell transplantation. Asano-sensei became Associate Professorin 1985 and Professor of the IMSUT in 1990 and Professorof the 4th Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty ofMedicine, The University of Tokyo (1992–1994). Heserved as Director of IMSUT hospital, 1994–2003 andDirector of the Advanced Clinical Research Center there,2001–2004. Asano-sensei retired from IMSUT in 2004 asProfessor Emeritus. Always on the go and with unboundedenergy in 2004 he moved to Waseda University as Professorof the Faculty of Science and Engineering and DirectorGeneral of Consolidated Research Institute for AdvancedScience and Medical Care, 2010–2012, retiring as Dis-tinguished Guest Research Professor and Emeritus Pro-fessor in 2013. He also served as Visiting Professor at theKobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 2008–2020.RPG 1st met Prof. Asano at UCLA in 1982 when he visitedJapanese colleague Hideki Kodo then doing post-doctoralstudy in RPG’s Lab at UCLA.