Hiroki from Medicinal Chemistry

• • Discovery chemistry

  • Matt - synthetic chemistry
  • Galith - synthetic chemistry
  • Theresa - synthetic chemistry
  • Richard - computational chemistry
  • Attilla - computational chemistry
  • Jon - medicinal chemistry
  • Sara - synthetic chemistry
  • Linette - physical chemistry
  • Julie - protein crystallographer
  • Matthew - physical chemistry
  • Chester - medicinal chemistry
  • Denise - synthetic chemistry
  • Hiroki - medicinal chemistry

After graduating from the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan, I studied organic chemistry for 2 years at the Graduate School.  In my first position I worked as a medicinal chemist for 6 years for Takeda Pharmaceutical Ltd in Osaka in Japan.

"I am currently working in a medicinal chemistry project where team-work and ideas are very important. It is always exciting to see everything from a different perspective" Hiroki

I enjoyed working at Takeda where I had a very good experience working in a process chemistry department for the first year, then moved to a Hit to Lead project where I was engaged in combinatorial chemistry to generate compound libraries. Amongst many chemists, I was one of the luckiest chemists whose compound was identified as a Lead compound. I transferred to the Lead Optimisation project with the my compound.

I've always been interested in the idea of working abroad. When I was a student, I joined the IAESTE program, which is the International Association of Exchanging Students for Technical Education. I then moved to the UK and worked as a medicinal chemist for 3 years at Millennium Pharmaceutical Ltd in Cambridge before joining Astrazeneca R&D Charnwood.

Since moving to the UK, I have learned a lot, not only working as a medicinal chemist, but also living with my family here in England. I am currently working in a medicinal chemistry project where teamwork and ideas are very important. It is always exciting to see everything from a different perspective. Therefore, I enjoy my every day life as we can discuss a lot of different ideas.

I believe that bringing many different unique ideas will lead the company to future success. I really enjoy working here as the company encourages people to give ideas from different perspectives, and gives us a lot of flexibility as everyone’s life is different. I believe that the diversity of people's experience will be beneficial for the success of Astrazeneca.