Yutaka Yata, MD, PhD, is a Director of the Gastroenterology Center and Vice Principal of Hanwa Memorial Hospital, Osaka, Japan. He graduated from Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University and completed a postgraduate course at Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University. He has participated in a Residency program and been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gastroenterology, Toyama and Pharmaceutical University Hospital. He also worked at the National Children's Medical Research Center and at the University of Tokyo Hospital as a Fellow. After finishing his PhD studies, he also worked as a Research Associate at the Liver Center, Duke University Medical Center and Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. His research topics are liver fibrosis, NASH, and the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (radiofrequency ablation, chemotherapy, and interventional radiology), and he has published several important papers in various leading journals, including: Hepatology, J Hepatology, Gut, J Biol Chem, Liver Int. Annals of Hematology, and Am J Physiol. In 2001, he received the Research Award of the Japan Society of Hepatology.