I completed my graduate studies in 2011, and after working in pharmacological research at a pharmaceutical company, I have been working as a laboratory animal management veterinarian at my current company since 2019. We at JT Pharmaceutical Research Institute are working hard to "create original new drugs" to save people around the world from diseases.
My desire to pursue a career in corporate research began relatively early in my career. When I first entered the university, I wanted to become a so-called "animal doctor," but I thought, "It is important to save one animal in front of me, but I believe that many animals can be saved through medicine," and "Animals also basically use human medicine, so I thought I could save many animals by working on human medicine instead of animal medicine. I changed my career path and decided to work for a pharmaceutical company.
I changed my career path and decided to work for a pharmaceutical company.
When I started working in a pharmaceutical company, I found that drug discovery research, especially the non-clinical part, is a continuation of what I had learned at university. Thinking about how to elucidate the mechanism of disease, administering various drugs to animals, observing their condition, applying appropriate treatment, and finally euthanizing the animals in a painless manner and collecting and examining the samples are just like the application of veterinary medicine from basic to clinical studies. Among other things, I never thought I would be so involved in laboratory animal science, which I was not so interested in as a student.
When we were students, laboratory animal science was not a major field, and I am ashamed to say that there were many aspects of the field that I did not understand what I learned. That said, its importance is now widely recognized, partly due to the recent rise in animal welfare worldwide. In 2014, I myself obtained the internationally recognized Japanese Specialist in Laboratory Animal Medicine certification and am now in a position to lead animal experimentation and animal welfare within the company as a supervising veterinarian. I am actively introducing management methods based on veterinary knowledge into the field of animal experiments, such as changing to group rearing for social animals to take advantage of their natural habits, and using appropriate painkillers and anesthetics to prevent unnecessary pain in the animals. This is due to the fact that the idea that veterinary management is essential for conducting appropriate animal experiments and obtaining meaningful data has become commonplace among researchers. Today, the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) are the basic premise of animal experiments, but 10 years ago, many people probably did not even know the term. I am simply in awe of the efforts of our predecessors who have contributed to the progress of animal welfare in Japan over the past decade.
After completing graduate school, I worked in Tokyo and Osaka, and although it has been a long time since I was away from the chilly nights I used to spend wondering if the water pipes would freeze, I still remember the fulfilling days I spent with my classmates in that rich natural environment. Perhaps it was because I was in such an environment with little disturbing noise from my surroundings that I was able to choose what I really wanted to do. I would like to encourage everyone to have a broad perspective and try to choose a career path that will allow you to demonstrate your abilities, rather than sticking to one thing.
