Ryuya Yamanaka is now a Professor at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan. He earned his MD at Niigata University, Japan, in 1982 and completed a neurosurgical residency training at its affiliated hospitals. He received his academic degree (Dr. Med. Sci.) from Niigata University. Following research fellowships at the National Institutes of Health in the United States from 1994 to 1998, he assumed the position of Assistant Professor and Lecturer at the Department of Neurosurgery in the Brain Research Institute at Niigata University. In 2006, he was promoted to Professor of the Research Center of Innovative Cancer Therapy at Kurume University School of Medicine. He joined the Faculty at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in 2010. His main research interests include translational biochemical research in clinical oncology, including brain tumors. He is a member of international and national scientific organizations, including the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Japanese Cancer Association (JCA), Japanese Society of Medical Oncology (JSMO) and Japan Neurosurgical Society (JNS). He has board certifications for Medical Oncology, Neurosurgery, and Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases.