Seven minutes in stroke - Tomohiro Kawano

Dr. Tomohiro Kawano, is from the

Department of Neurology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine

1. What inspired you towards neuroscience?

When I was a medical student my interest in neuroscience was sparked by Professor Mitsuhiro Osame, from Kagoshima University, Japan. He is not only a great scientist and clinician but also remarkable educator. He often encouraged us by saying “In neurological diseases, there are often some limitations for treatment even after definitive diagnosis. Thereafter, there are so many things to elucidate. Neurologist never give up.” 

2. Why stroke?

When I trained as a resident, I was very impressed by successful Intravenous thrombolysis in patients with acute stroke. On the other hand, I was so discouraged by neurological worsening during hospitalization or insufficient functional recovery in stroke survivors. Based on these experiences, I made up my mind to eradicate stroke!

3. What have been the highs so far?

Dramatic recovery following successful recanalization of occluded artery always makes me happy. These days, I am working on basic research in PhD course Osaka University in Japan. When I obtained good experimental results as expected, I feel great.

4. What have been the lows?

There are two cases: in one case, experiments do not work well. In another case, paper is rejected. 

5.How do you balance work life with the needs of home life?

I think it is probably difficult for many physicians to maintain a work-life balance besides clinical work. I always try to complete work during the daytime as much as possible. However, I often go back to the lab to put myself to complete unfinished work until midnight after my children fall asleep.

6. Who are your most important mentors and how did you find them?

I am very lucky to have met good mentors in my professional life. Among them, Dr Munehisa Shimamura, associate professor in Osaka University, is not only a supervisor of my PhD course, but also the most important mentor. He works incredibly hard and shows me what the physician-scientist should be.

7. What are your most important collaborations and how have you built them?

Working in National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, located in Osaka, Japan, gave me a good network among vascular neurologist who came from all over Japan. Thanks to this network with my colleagues, I could publish a paper in Int J Stroke [https://doi.org/10.1177/1747493016677982].

Currently, I have had the pleasure to collaborate with many excellent clinicians and scientists in Osaka University. Our recent research project is development of antithrombotic vaccine for prevention of ischemic stroke in mice toward clinical applications. We hope to provide this unique vaccination as a more effective treatment on the clinical scene in the future.