Akio Suzumura, MD, PhD, graduated from Gifu University, School of Medicine in 1975. After getting PhD degree at Department Neurology, Nagoya University, School of Medicine in 1983, he had worked for Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania as a post-doctoral fellow until 1987. There, he established the methods for isolation of oligodendrocytes and microglia and had studied immunological functions of glial cells. He became an assistant professor in Department of Neurology, Fujita Health University in 1987, and an associate professor in Department of Neurology, Nara Medical University in 1995. He became Professor and Chairman in Department of Neuroimmunology, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Nagoya University in 2001, and currently a vise president of the Institute. He had been a president of Japanese Society of Neuroimmunolgy (2008-2012). He is currently an Editor-in-Chief of Clinical and Experimental Neuroimmunology, an Academic Editor of PLoS ONE. His current interest is neuron-glia interactions in both physiological and pathological conditions.
Dr. Kazuhiro Ikenaka is Professor at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences in Okazaki, Japan since 1992. He graduated from Osaka University, Faculty of Science majoring in Biochemistry. His current research interest is in glial biology. He is studying the development of glial cells (oligodendrocyte and astrocyte) and their function in the adult brain. He is also interested in pathophysiology of demyelinating diseases, especially multiple sclerosis. He developed a sensitive way to analyze N-linked sugar chain structure and is willing to find a new function of N-glycans in glial cells. He is currently an Associate Editor of Journal of Neuroscience Research, Neurochemical Research, and Developmental Neuroscience, and Senior Editor for ASN Neuro.
