Credentials: MD 1976, Wakayama Medical University. PhD in Biochemistry 1981, Kyushu Dental College. PhD in Biochemistry 1987, Wakayama Medical University. Assistant Professor, 1978-1986, Kyushu Dental College. Visiting Assistant Professor, 1986-1989, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA. Principle Investigator, 1989-1990, National Cancer Center Research Institute, Tokyo Japan. Assistant and Associate Professor, 1990-2003, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA. Professor, 2003-present, University of California Davis, School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA, USA. In Boston, Yoshikazu Takada was involved in the original identification of beta1 integrins, and she cloned cDNAs of integrin subunits and identified several integrin ligands (collagen, VCAM-1). In La Jolla, she performed structural-function studies of integrins. Over the last 15 years, she has identified many integrin ligands by virtual screening of protein data banks using docking simulation (mostly growth factors and cytokines). She identified the second ligand binding site (site 2) in the integrin headpiece by docking simulation and discovered that several inflammatory proteins (e.g., chemokines) bind to site 2 and activate integrins, indicating that site 2 is the allosteric site.