Junichi Okamoto joined the Thoracic Oncology Laboratory on sabbatical from Nippon Medical University in Tokyo, Japan. He received MD and PhD degrees from Nippon Medical School and is currently completing his thoracic surgery training there and also finished his PhD there in the laboratory of Dr. Kiyoshi Koizumi.
Here in the U.S., Junichi studyied the involvement of homeobox genes in Wnt and Hedgehog signaling and the implications such interactions may have on the development of lung cancer with hopes that these interactions may become targets for lung cancer therapeutics.