Sugahara carried out research on glycoprotein in the bachelorﾕs degree course and graduate school (Department of Biochemistry/Prof. Ikuo Yamashina) of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, and after graduating from the doctoral course, went to the Department of Biochemistry (Prof. Albert Dorfman, Associated Prof. Nancy Schwartz), Faculty of Pediatrics, University of Chicago in July 1976 and studied the synthesis of hyaluronic acid, sulfation in the synthesis of chondroitin sulfate, metabolic disease (brachymorphic mice as mice with genetic deficit of active sulfate), and proteoglycan structure for 6 years. In April 1981, he returned to Japan and was employed as a research associate at the Department of Biochemistry (Prof. Ikuo Yamashina), Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University. He continued research on low sulfation of glycosaminoglycan in cultured cancer cells, sulfotransferases involved in the sulfation of glycosaminoglycans, and the sulfation of the linkage region between the glycosaminoglycan of proteoglycan and core protein that he discovered while studying in the US. In April 1990, he left for a post in this university and had an opportunity to advance these studies.

In April 1991, Shuhei Yamada completed the masterﾕs course of the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University (Prof. Toshisuke Kawasaki) and assumed the post of a research associate at this department. In March 1992, Prof. Musashi retired. In April 1994, Hiroshi Kitagawa, who had completed the doctoral course of the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University (Prof. Ikuo Yamashina) and had studied molecular cloning of sialotransferase and gene analysis for 3 years at Cytel (Dr. James Paulson) in the U.S., assumed the post of an assistant professor. In July 1995, Shuhei Yamada obtained a doctorate from Kyoto University by ﾒAnalysis of micromodification of sulfated glycosaminoglycanﾓ. In addition, Hiromi Tuda (ﾕ92.4-ﾕ96.3) and Akiko Kinoshita (ﾕ96.4-ﾕ98.12) from this department worked as research associates. In April 2000, Tadahisa Mikami assumed the post of a research associate after completing the second year of the doctoral degree course (Prof. Nobuyuki Ito), Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University. Since then, these members have constituted the present staff of this department. Between October 2001 and January 2003, Shuhei Yamada studied at the Biomedical Center (Prof. Ulf Lindahl) of Uppsala University, Sweden. In July 2002, Tadahisa Mikami obtained a doctorate from Kyoto University by ﾒStudy on the expression and action of Fringe as a signal molecule structurally resembling transglycosidation. Between 1991 and 2004, our department has annually had about 10 undergraduates engaging in graduation research, and 43 students have completed the masterﾕs program and 3 have completed the doctorial program of our graduate school. Recently, postdoctorate fellows from Korea, India, and China and graduate students from Thailand have been accepted, developing international activities.