Dr. Koichi Watashi is a Director of the Division of Drug Development, Research Center for Drug and Vaccine Development at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Tokyo University of Science and a Visiting Professor at Waseda University. He mainly studies molecular biology and the drug development of hepatitis viruses, coronaviruses, poxviruses, etc. He has produced over 200 papers in international academic journals. He was awarded by many academic societies and organizations, including The Incentive Award of The Japanese Cancer Association (JCA), Sugiura Memorial Incentive Award of The Japanese Society for Virology (JSV), the Taisho-Toyama Award (Liver Forum), and the MSD Award of The Japanese Society of Hepatology (JSH). He is also a board member of the International Coalition to Eliminate HBV (ICE-HBV) and an organizer of the International Hepatitis B Virus Meeting in 2023 at Kobe, Japan.
