Polymers 2025

Kensuke OSADA is a Group Leader and Senior Principle Investigator in the Department of Molecular Imaging and Theranostics, Institute for Quantum Medical Science, National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST) Japan. He obtained his PhD at the Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, in 2002. In 2003 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and in 2004, he completed his postdoctoral work with Prof. Kazunori Kataoka at The University of Tokyo. From 2004 to 2006, Dr. Osada was a Project Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, where he was promoted to a Project Associate Professor in 2006. During 2012-2016, he was a PRESTO researcher by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). He also became a Project Associate Professor at the Department of Bioengineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo in 2013, until he moved to his position at QST in 2018. He has received several awards, including the Award for Encouragement of Research in Polymer Science, and the Award of Asahi kasei from the Japanese Society of Polymer Science and the Award for Encouragement of Research from the Japan Association for Chemical Innovation. His research interest includes complex coacervates from synthetic and biological polymers and their application as nanomedicines. In particular, the nanoassembly structure constructed from synthetic polymers and DNA prepared as a synthetic virus by him have demonstrated therapeutic effect in intractable cancer, such as pancreatic cancer. His interests are further extended to development of MRI nanoprobes to diagnose diseases and nanodiamonds to probe biophysical information in body as a quantum sensor. His standpoint is to clarify physics and structures of nanoparticle formation underlying and to strategically design polymers so that the finest performance can be emerged there for diagnosis and therapy.