Kiyoshi Takayama has a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical science from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan. He worked for more than 12 years as a research scientist at Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Japan, where he was involved in the development of GPCR assay and the conducting of various drug discovery programs for chronic inflammation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He also contributed to research on vascular inflammation conducted by Dr. Peter Libby (a current scientific advisor of NBHL) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. After leaving Taisho, he founded NBHL in 2006 and became the president of NBHL, with focusing on establishing a technology platform for the generation of functional mAbs targeting GPCRs to pioneer a new field in GPCR-targeted drug discovery, in collaboration with universities and other partners globally.