Yoichi Kumada, Ph.D.

Professor at Kyoto Institute of Technology

Speaker

Yoichi Kumada received his Ph.D. from Kobe University in 2005. After serving as a JSPS Research Fellow at Okayama University and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU, Austria), he joined the Kyoto Institute of Technology in 2007, where he is currently a Professor of Biochemical Engineering. His research focuses on the design and development of recombinant affinity ligands and antibody fragments for biopharmaceutical purification and diagnostic applications. Professor Kumada has pioneered the use of rabbit-derived single-chain antibodies (scFvs) and peptide ligands as next-generation affinity materials for site-specific and mild purification of non-Fc biologics. He received the Young Researcher Award from the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan (2008) and the Young Scientist Award from the Society for Biotechnology, Japan (2012). He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin and Caʼ Foscari University of Venice. His current efforts aim to establish scalable affinity chromatography platforms contributing to sustainable and innovative bioprocessing.