Akiko is a director of Division of Biological Chemistry and Biologicals in the National Institute of Health Sciences, Tokyo, Japan. She received her B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Kyoto University. She joined NIHS in 1996. She has experiences with characterizations and bioanalysis using ligand binding assays of biopharmaceuticals. She is engaged in regulatory science research for therapeutic proteins, and a member of the expert committees of the Japanese Pharmacopoeia. Currently, she is a rapporteur of ICH M10 (Bioanalytical Method Validation) Expert Working Group.