Professor,
Department of Materials Engineering / Department of Bioengineering, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan
Group Website: https://www.bmm.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index-e.html
Kanjiro Miyata obtained a Ph.D. (Engineering) under the supervision of Prof. Kazunori Kataoka in Department of Materials Engineering from The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) in 2006. Then, he started the research on polymeric nanomedicines for nucleic acid delivery at the same university. In 2016, he was promoted to associate professor as a PI in Department of Materials Engineering at UTokyo. In 2022, he was promoted to full professor in Department of Materials Engineering and also Department of Bioengineering (concurrently) at UTokyo. He also serves as a visiting professor in Science Tokyo (from 2023) and Tokyo University of Science (from 2026). His research group specifically focuses on a ultra-small “dynamic” nanomedicne for oligonucleotide delivery. Currently, the first generation is being evaluated in Phase I clinical trial for treatment of malignat brain tumors. He has published over 170 papers (h-index 61) and received multiple awards, including DDTR Outstanding Research Paper Award (2014) and Japan Society of DDS Award. He is a council member of Japan Society of Drug Delivery System, Japanese Society for Biomaterials, Nucleic Acids Therapeutic Socity of Japan, and The Japan Society of Nucleic Acids Chemistry. He also acts as associate editor for Journal of Controlled Release.
Representative Publications
1. 1. N. Qiao, K. Miyata, et al., Increasing polycation hydrophobicity in mRNA polyplex vaccines enhances the efficacy of humoral and cellular immunity induction. Biomaterials 324, 123515 (2026)
2. C. Y. J. Lau, H. Kinoh, X. Liu, J. Feng, F. Aulia, K. Taniwaki, N. Qiao, S. Ogura, M. Naito, K. Miyata, Structurally dynamic polyplexes enhance sentinel lymph node delivery of antisense oligonucleotides to inhibit breast cancer recurrence and metastasis. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 147, 26286–26297 (2025)
3. M. Naito, Y. Watanuki, K. Toh, J. Yum, B. S. Kim, K. Taniwaki, S. Ogura, H. Ishida, M. Cho, H. Chaya, K. Miyajima, Y. Yamasaki, K. Osada, K. Minegishi, Y. Aoki, K. Miyata, Size-tunable PEG-grafted copolymers as a polymeric nanoruler for passive targeting muscle tissues. J. Control. Release 347, 607–614 (2022)
4. H. S. Min, H. J. Kim, M. Naito, S. Ogura, K. Toh, K. Hayashi, B. S. Kim, S. Fukushima, Y. Anraku, K. Miyata, K. Kataoka, Systemic brain delivery of antisense oligonucleotides across the blood‐brain barrier with a glucose‐installed polymeric nanocarrier. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 59, 8173–8180 (2020)
5. H. J. Kim, S. Ogura, T. Otabe, R. Kamegawa, M. Sato, K. Kataoka, K. Miyata, Fine-tuning of hydrophobicity in amphiphilic polyaspartamide derivatives for rapid and transient expression of messenger RNA directed toward genome engineering in brain. ACS Cent. Sci. 5, 1866–1875 (2019)
6. S. Watanabe, K. Hayashi, K. Toh, H. J. Kim, X. Liu, H. Chaya, S. Fukushima, K. Katsushima, Y. Kondo, S. Uchida, S. Ogura, T. Nomoto, H. Takemoto, H. Cabral, H. Kinoh, H. Tanaka, M. R. Kano, Y. Matsumoto, H. Fukuhara, S. Uchida, M. Nangaku, K. Osada, N. Nishiyama, K. Miyata, K. Kataoka, In vivo rendezvous of small nucleic acid drugs with charge-matched block catiomers to target cancer. Nat. Commun. 10, 1894 (2019)
