Dr. Sugiyama received a Ph.D. from University of Tokyo, School of Pharmacy in 1978. He started his academic career in 1974 as a Research Associate of the University of Tokyo. He was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1989 and of Professor in 1991. He retired from the University of Tokyo in 2012 and has continued his studies as head of the Sugiyama Laboratory at the RIKEN Innovation Center.
Dr. Sugiyama is acknowledged as a world-leader in the fields of physiologically based pharmacokinetics and membrane transporters. His work on physiologically based pharmacokinetics has been pivotal for quantitative in vitro – in vivo extrapolation, especially the development of models for the prediction of drug clearance and the magnitude of inhibitory drug-drug interactions in humans. Further, his studies on membrane transporters, which encompass functional and kinetic characterization, and the impact of genetic variation, have been fundamental to our understanding of the role of transporters in drug disposition.
Dr. Sugiyama has thus produced a remarkable body of scientific work. He is the author of 665 original articles, 65 review articles. Dr. Sugiyama has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the AAPS Award in 2003, PSWC Research Achievement Award in 2007, FIP Host-Madsen Gold Medal in 2009, Medal with Purple Ribbon given by Government of Japan in 2010, BB Brodie Award from ASPET in 2012, Rawls-Palmer Progress in Medicine Award from ASCPT in 2014, and the RT Williams Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from ISSX in 2013. In addition to his scientific work, Dr Sugiyama has held leadership positions in several scientific organizations. In particular, he has served as the chairman of board of Pharmaceutical Sciences (BPS) of FIP and Presidents of ISSX and JSSX and strongly promoted worldwide drug metabolism, disposition and transporter research.