Prof. Toshiaki Kawakami is a Professor Emeritus at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, La Jolla, California, USA. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from The University of Tokyo, Faculty of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. He studied oncogenes as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute/NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. After an Assistant Professorship at Kyoto University, he joined the newly formed La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (currently La Jolla Institute for Immunology) as an Assistant Member (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in 1990 to start mast cell and allergy research. He was a Member (equivalent to full Professor) in 2000-2023.