Meet Dr. Sho Hiroyasu, whose top ranked abstract was selected for an oral presentation at Pathology Day 2019
I was born and grew up in Osaka, one of the biggest cities in Japan. As a child, I was interested in many things such as playing the violin, rock climbing, hiking, camping, karate, judo, math, and physics. Along with other dreams of becoming a professional violinist or a climbing bum, one of my dream jobs was a researcher because I was a big fan of sci-fi, where the main characters were always researchers who establish new theories or develop fancy machines. With that motivation and because contributing to people’s health through medical science sounded like quite a nice idea to me based on my experience of undergoing surgery for my broken collar bone, I decided to go to medical school (you go to med schools directly after grade-12 in Japan). During med school at Osaka City University, as well as studying medicine, I was playing the violin in many university and community orchestras. Because of that, I probably wasn’t fully committed to studying medicine, however, I don’t regret that as I met with some people through the music who became important in my life, including my wife.
After I completed med school and junior residency (in Japan, you take this 2-year practical training before choosing clinical specialty), I decided to join a dermatology department in my university hospital because my former supervisor, Daisuke Tsuruta in the department told me that I could do both clinical work and research from the first year in his group, which was rare in other departments. Over the next four years, while working as a clinical dermatologist, I was studying the pathological roles of autoantibodies and hemidesmosomal-proteins (major attachment complex between epidermis and dermis) in autoimmune subepidermal blistering diseases for my PhD. In those days, I was really busy as I had to do my research after all my clinical duties were done, but it was also fun.
After obtaining my PhD degree, I decided to move to Jonathan Jones’ lab at Washington State University to extend my studies by focusing on the roles of hemidesmosome and focal adhesion in keratinocyte migration with cellular and molecular biology techniques. I definitely enjoyed my research works very much in the Jones lab as well as our life in a small town in the middle of nowhere in the US. My family enjoyed Pullman, the town where WSU is, because it was safe and quiet and most neighbors were nice and friendly. In addition, now I didn’t need to wake up at 2 am every Monday to watch NFL games, like I was doing in Japan. After 5 years of this first postdoc training, we decided to come here, to move my research forward to the translational research field.
Since starting my current postdoc position in David Granville’s lab in the fall of 2017, I’ve been elucidating pathological functions of granzymes in multiple skin inflammatory diseases, of course including my favorite ones, autoimmune subepidermal blistering diseases. I’m really happy with my current position as my research keeps showing me exciting data and Dave and other lab members are all supportive. I also like the life in Vancouver, as I believe this city is one of the best places for outdoor activities in the world. Apart from my research, I’m still climbing rocks and playing the violin. While I have been doing these things since my childhood, now my wife and my 9-year old son are doing them with me. My son in particular, has become my best climbing buddy and ensemble partner. During the rest of my postdoc training in the Granville lab, I’m going to enjoy research, rock climbing, playing the music, and other outdoor activities in this beautiful city as much as possible.
