Dr Michihiko Kuwano is professor and director at Research Center for Innovative Cancer Therapy at Kurume University, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. At present, his focus is on the establishment of molecular targets that could be closely associated with drug resistance and other malignant characteristics in cancer cells and their micro-environments in tumor stroma. These molecular targets will be intrinsically important to development of novel and useful therapeutic strategies that could be great help for cancer patients. Dr Kuwano graduated from Kyushu University School of Medicine (M.D.) in 1964. He had already started his research career in molecular biology of bacteria and bacteriophage when he was a medical student. He received his Ph.D. on genetics on ribosomes by analysis of bacterial antibioticsresistant mutants at Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu University (Professor Hideya Endo). Based on this molecular biology study with bacterial mutants, he further continued bacterial molecular biology research on protein synthesis and mRNA degradation during postdoctoral fellowship at Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis) (Professor David Schlessinger) (1969-1971), and at the Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu University (1971-1978).