On April 17, Dr. Takaaki Miyaji, Associate Professor of the Department of Genomics and Proteomics, Advanced Science Research Center, Okayama University received the 2018 Young Scientists’ Prize of Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for his ”Biochemical studies on the structure and function of eukaryotic transporters for drug discovery.”

Dr. Miyaji is an excellent researcher who is expected to play a leading role in his area of academic expertise in the future. He has many significant achievements—he and his peer researchers were the first in the world to identify a vitamin C transporter in plants, and he received the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan Award for Young Scientists ’16 in March 2016.

Dr. Miyaji expressed his joy in receiving the Young Scientists’ Prize and his future aspirations: “I deeply appreciate all the people who have supported me. I’m truly humbled and honored to have received this prize. It’s a great encouragement for me. I’ll continue to work hard to contribute to further development of research in my area of expertise and also explore new areas of research.”