Koichi Ichimura MD, PhD

Koichi Ichimura graduated Tokyo Medical and Dental University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan in 1985 and was originally trained as a neurosurgeon after obtaining MD. He then moved on to postgraduate study focusing on genetics of brain tumors and obtained PhD (Faculty of Medicine) at Institute of Oncology and Pathology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden in 1996. Having worked as post-doctoral fellow at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Stockholm and Senior Research Associate, Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, UK, he holds the current position as Chief, Division of Brain Tumor Translational Research, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan since 2011 until now. His current research interests include genome analysis, molecular diagnosis and development of novel therapy for all types of malignant brain tumors in adults and children. His special interest in pediatric neuro-oncology is central nervous system germ cell tumors (CNS GCT). He organized a nationwide consortium for CNS GCT genome analysis (iGCT Consortium) to collect over hundreds of tumor tissue samples and patients’ information, and published several key papers in this field. He is also in charge of molecular analysis in the central diagnosis of pediatric brain tumors in Japan Children’s Cancer Group (JCCG). He is an associate editor of Neuro-Oncology and on the editorial board of Neuro-Oncology Practice and Acta Neuropathologica. He is the Chair for the 19th International Symposium on Pediatric Neuro-Oncology (ISPNO2020) in Karuizawa, Japan, Board Member of the Japan Society for Neuro-Oncology, Active Member of the American Association of Cancer Research, among others.