 |
From Physics to Molecular Biology to Immunology to Psychiatry
Mr. Takeo Yoshikawa, the laboratory head for the Laboratory for Molecular Psychiatry in RIKEN BSI, quietly recalled the early days, "I started studying mental diseases in earnest in 1986, after joining the Department of Neuropsychiatry, Tokyo Medical and Dental University as a postgraduate student. I wanted to study the causes of mental diseases by investigating protein abnormalities, but in those days, psychiatrists were mainly interested in psychopathology. I think this may still be true. Many people around me were asking questions like 'What is the mind?' and studying the thinking of philosophers and such. I felt out of place because I had come from the department of basic science."
As Mr. Yoshikawa admits, "I made a whimsical detour to get here" and his career is indeed unique. Influenced by his father, who was a physics teacher, Mr. Yoshikawa entered the University of Tokyo after high school. Following graduation from the School of Ants and Sciences he embarked on a master's degree in correlation physics; but he left a year later to study in Osaka University, School of Medicine. After graduation, he moved to the aforementioned Tokyo Medical and Dental University.
"When I entered the University of Tokyo, great discoveries in molecular biology were being made, one after another, including the discovery and use of the restriction enzyme. I felt the enthusiasm and sensed the possibilities of genetic engineering, although I was ignorant of biology. For these and other reasons, I enrolled in the laboratory of biological physics where I focused on correlation physics; but I increasingly wanted to study a field that was more closely related to the phenomena of life, so I finally decided to enter the Medical School. I had intended to study cancer using the methods from molecular biology, but access to the laboratory of Prof. Tadamitsu Kishimoto, an authority on immunology, allowed me to participate in studies on immunity.
"However, upon graduation, an idea struck me. Various biological phenomena were already understood in the field of immunity in those days, yet many unidentified fluids and cellular factors complicated things and I could not see further development. Therefore, I thought it would be more rewarding to study an unexplored, little-studied field."
Life is an Accumulation of Chance and Inevitability
Mr. Yoshikawa ultimately chose psychiatry as this "unexplored world", joined Tokyo Medical and Dental University, learned the way of biological research on psychiatry from late Prof. Ryo Takahashi and Prof. Michio Toru, and worked as a doctor of psychiatry at several hospitals before being given the chance to study neuroscience in Prof. Kunihiko Obata's laboratory in National Institute for Psysiological Sciences. Later, he went to the National Institute of Mental Health, Clinical Neurogenetics Branch in the United States as a visiting scientist, and in 1999, he started research at RIKEN as the laboratory head for the Laboratory for Molecular Psychiatry, which focuses on genetic dissection of mental diseases.
"I have been fortunate to have good leaders and co-workers so far.
"As you may know, many interrelated factors contributing to mental diseases compound the complexity of these disorders, making it very difficult to narrow down and identify causes. This leads to prejudice against patients with mental diseases and their families. However, mental diseases are just diseases. I think abnormalities in proteins in the brain may be a cause of these diseases, and I intend to show this."
In fact, this idea has been borne out by research to date. "The human genome has about three billion base pairs, and it is estimated that there are variations at about three millions sites. The combination of various genes may allow mental diseases to develop easily, and is itself a potential cause," says Dr. Yoshikawa.
Gene variability is inevitable, and is more likely to contribute to these disorders than the random combination of many unrelated factors.
"While many things seem to be the result of chance, they are actually the accumulation of inevitabilities. This is also true of my career to date. Though I always thought of it as subjective and inconsistent, I can now see my career of studying mental diseases was an inevitable consequence of my interests."
Mr. Yoshikawa lost his mother in February this year, and said he felt the strong upbringing of his parents at that time. Despite feeling that he has directed his own life, he has inherited much from his parents.
"My father is well, but each time I see him he asks me to explain what I am doing in plain language and I am at lost for words. That is in part because of my lack of ability, but also because this field of science is still developing and not easy to explain. Simply, I would like to clarify mental diseases which have always been considered difficult to understand." |
|
 |
 |
|
|
