Dr. Hitoshi Okazawa graduated from The University of Tokyo and received license of medical doctor in 1984. After clinical training as a resident in The University of Tokyo Hospital and other major hospitals in Tokyo, he became a staff member of Department of Neurology The University of Tokyo in 1986. He started research of molecular biology at Department of Biochemistry The University of Tokyo in 1988, and received Ph.D. by discovery of Oct-3/Oct-4, the most essential factor for ES cell differentiation and iPS cell generation, in 1991 (Cell 1990; EMBO J 1991; EMBO J 1993). He then moved to Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich Germany as a staff scientist in Department of Neurobiochemistry, where he discovered a novel receptor for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Development 1994). He came back to Department of Neurology The University of Tokyo as an assistant professor in 1993, and moved to Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience as Department Chair in 2001. He has been Professor and Chair of Neuropathology TMDU from 2003, and Director of Center for Brain Integration Research at TMDU from 2012. He discovered polyglutamine binding protein-1 (PQBP1) (Hum Mol Genet 1999; Neuron 2002), which is implicated in polyQ diseases, microcephaly, Alzheimer’s disease and HIV infection. He also discovered intracellular amyloid beta accumulation and JNK activation in neurons of Alzheimer's disease patients (Mol Brain Res 2000). Thereafter, he has been focusing on the common pathology across multiple neurodegenerative diseases and on the pre-aggregation (ultra-eraly stage) pathology of neurodegenerative diseases (Nat Cell Biol 2007; Nat Commun 2013; 2014; 2017; 2018; 2020, Mol Psychiatry 2015; 2018; EMBOJ 2010; EMBO Mol Med 2015, JCB 2006; 2010 etc). He has been the leader of several top-down group-research projects of Japanese Government including “Foundation of Synapse Neurocircuit Pathology” supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas, and “Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies (Brain/MINDS)” and “Gene Therapy against SCA1 based on Molecular Pathomechanism” supported by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). He has been a trustee member of Japanese Society of Neurochemistry from 2004, Japanese Society of Neurology from 2010, a director of Japanese Neuroscience Society from 2014, and was the president of 41st Annual Meeting of Japanese Neuroscience Society in 2018. He received several prizes/awards including Narabayashi Prize (Japanese Society of Neurology) in 2011.