ABOUT THE SOCIETY
Top of pageHistory of the JARA
The Japan Antibiotics Research Association (JARA) was established in 1946. The aim of the Association is to encourage research in, and spread knowledge of, microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry and pharmacology, with a particular emphasis on antibiotics and microbial products. Further information is available in Japanese at www.antibiotics.or.jp.
Top of pageAbout the editors
Editor-in-Chief: Satoshi Ōmura, PhD
Professor Ōmura, a global leader in Bioorganic Chemistry, is currently President Emeritus at The Kitasato Institute and Professor Emeritus at Kitasato University in Japan, as well as Max Tishler Professor of Chemistry at Wesleyan University in the USA. After receiving doctorate degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Tokyo (1968) and in Chemistry from the Tokyo University of Science (1970), he worked as a Researcher at the Kitasato Institute and as a Visiting Professor at Wesleyan University. He was a Professor in the Kitasato University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences from 1975 to 1984 and President of The Kitasato Institute from 1990 to 2008. His pioneering research interests focus on the chemistry and biology of microbial metabolites (including their discovery); the biosynthesis and hybrid biosynthesis of new macrolide antibiotics; the breeding, genetic analysis and mapping of Streptomyces avermectinius and other microorganisms; the synthesis of novel semi-synthetic macrolides and the organic synthesis of new compounds. He was a recipient of the Japan Academy Prize (1990), the ACS Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products (2005), the Hamao Umezawa Memorial Award of the International Society of Chemotherapy (2007), and many other national and international awards and honors. He is a member of the Japan Academy, the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Institut de France, the Academie des Sciences, the European Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as well as being an honorary member of several learned societies around the world.
Managing Editor: Yoshikazu Takahashi, PhD
Dr Takahashi is the Deputy Director of the Microbial Chemistry Research Center (2003 to present) and an Invited Professor at Waseda University in Japan (2007 to present). He earned his PhD in Chemistry from Keio University in Japan in 1983. His academic career began at the Microbial Chemistry Research Center (formerly the Institute of Microbial Chemistry) in 1974, where he was involved in the structural determination of natural products for more than thirty years.
Dr Takahashi served as a Section Editor (structure determination) from 2005 to 2007, and in 2008 became Managing Editor for The Journal of Antibiotics.
