Yoshihiro Ikura studied medicine at Osaka City University and graduated in 1989.  After a clinical fellowship in Kobe City General Hospital, he was adopted as a staff pathologist of Osaka City University Medical School in 1991.  He had been promoted to Associate Professor, and then, became a Director of Pathology, Takatsuki General Hospital, in 2010.  Dr. Ikura has published 66 International scientific papers in well-regarded journals in addition to 63 domestic scientific papers.  As a consequence of his remarkable scientific achievement, he was given an opportunity to lecture concerning hypercoagulation-related secondary liver damage in cirrhosis, in a special meeting of “Coagulation Disorders in Liver Disease: Currents and Counter Currents” held in Charlottesville, VA, in 2007.  Additionally, he has given some invited lectures in the area of his expertise in domestic conferences.  Dr. Ikura had received several scientific awards in the field of Hepatology, including Hepatology Research Award of Japan Society of Hepatology (JSH) in 2006.  He currently serves as a Councilor of JSH West Division, and also as an International Corresponding Member of American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and European Association for the Study of Liver (EASL).  He is also serving as an Editorial Board Member of World Journal of Hepatology (WJH), and has been invited as a referee to numerous peer-review journals.