[No. 212] Eisuke Toriihara

I am greatly honored to have been asked to contribute to "Jukuin Raiou" (Alumni Connections).

I am very happy to be a part of this column. I hope that my experiences will be of some help to everyone who reads it.

I am a graduate of Keio Senior High School, which became a hot topic at the 2023 Koshien Tournament. At the time, I chose to pursue science because I wanted to be involved in work that dealt with human life and, quite simply, because I was not good at Japanese language arts. My main memory from high school is running on the grounds in Hiyoshi every day as a member of the track and field team. Even so, I had some interest in chemistry back then, and I remember buying and studying from a book called "Kagaku no Shin Kenkyu" (New Research in Chemistry) before tests.

In the Department of Chemistry at the time, lab assignments for third-year students were decided by discussion rather than by grades. As my grades were not the best, I became interested in the newly established Suenaga Laboratory. The Suenaga Lab's main research focused on the discovery of new bioactive substances (isolation and structural determination of novel compounds) and the chemical synthesis of these bioactive substances (total synthesis of natural products). The idea that "compounds discovered from marine organisms could provide clues for anticancer drugs" resonated with my vague desire to be involved in work related to human life, which sparked my interest in the Suenaga Lab. As a result, I was accepted as one of the first members of the Suenaga Lab, and my research life began.

The Suenaga Lab was newly established at the time, and as the first cohort of students, we were involved in setting up the laboratory, starting with ordering rotary evaporators. I believe I had a very fulfilling time, as Professor Suenaga and Assistant Professor Toshiaki Teruya painstakingly taught me how to conduct experiments. They both patiently taught me, even though I knew nothing. The experimental techniques from that time have stuck with me even after joining the company, and I still use them today.

Members of the first cohort of the Suenaga Lab in 2006 (Toriihara is second from the left in the top row).

At university, I researched the total synthesis of natural products. One of these was a natural product called Reidispondiolide A. Its total synthesis had not yet been achieved, so with the support of my professors, I proceeded with multiple tasks: designing a synthetic route, verifying the route through preliminary experiments, and scaling up the necessary starting materials. At the time, it was necessary to scale up in parallel with advancing the route, and I worked on this by dividing the tasks with a junior student who was assigned the same theme. Looking back, I may have been learning how to work by dividing and planning multiple tasks even back then.

Wanting to apply the organic synthesis I learned in the lab and be involved in work related to human life, I sought a research position in the pharmaceutical industry. Fortunately, I was hired by Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation, a pharmaceutical company within the Asahi Kasei Group, and was assigned to the Synthetic Chemistry Research Department. The Research Centers and Institutes are located in a place called Ohito in the central part of Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, a peaceful area rich in nature. What I found different from university after joining the company was that many tasks are finely divided. Tasks that one would have to do alone at university are divided among specialists in a company. Therefore, there are professionals for each task, and I believe the system is designed to produce results when these parts mesh well together. The way I advanced the synthesis by sharing tasks with a junior student during my university days proved to be very useful in the professional world.

The research building in Shizuoka Prefecture

Both at university and in the company, communication is extremely important for advancing a research theme. Pharmaceutical research and development involves the close collaboration of multiple fields, such as synthesis, molecular biology, Pharmacology (Division of), pharmacokinetics, and intellectual property. There are professionals in each field, each with a different perspective, and through discussion, we cultivate novel compounds into medicines over a long period. I didn't have many opportunities to discuss with people from other fields at university, but these opportunities have increased significantly since I joined the company. To move things forward with people from other fields, I believe that in addition to communication, the ability to discuss from the other person's point of view is a crucial skill. When a research theme that we have advanced as a united team through daily discussions moves forward, I feel that the more people involved, the greater the joy.

I have been involved in pharmaceutical research and development for almost 12 years, and to be honest, I have not yet achieved the feat of bringing a drug I worked on to the market. However, I want to continue to devote myself daily to creating "what did not exist in the world until yesterday" in order to contribute to people's "life" and "living."

At the EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry in September 2019.