NIDCR Senior Scientist Yamada Mourned

Dr. Yoshihiko Yamada, a senior scientist in the Laboratory of Cell and Developmental Biology in the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, passed away on Dec. 16, 2019. He was 76. 

Yamada served NIH for 40 years, 34 of them at NIDCR. In 1978, he joined the National Cancer Institute to study gene evolution and regulation of collagen genes. 

In 1983, he joined NIDCR, where he studied the function of the extracellular matrix in a variety of tissues including teeth, cartilage and basement membranes to better understand its role in development and disease. He had more than 350 publications and two patents.

In addition to his illustrious research career, he was an ardent supporter of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellowship program at NIH, hosting dozens of fellows in his lab and regularly organizing symposia for the program. 

In 2011, he and others at NIH received an award from the Japanese embassy in recognition of NIH’s support of the Japanese research community after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters. Yamada was involved in the NIH-JSPS-Tohoku Symposium in 2017 in Sendai, Japan, which was a scientific response to the devastating Tohoku earthquake and the subsequent disruption to the local scientific community. 

He will be sadly missed by his family, friends and colleagues.