Akira Shigenaga obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Tokushima in 2004. After postdoctoral research with Professor Kim D. Janda at The Scripps Research Institute, he joined Professor Akira Otaka’s group at the University of Tokushima as a staff scientist. Since 2007, he has been an assistant professor of the same lab. He received the Ajinomoto Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan in 2006, the Young Investigators Award of The Japanese Peptide Society in 2012, and the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan in 2013. His research focus is on synthetic peptide/protein chemistry and peptide/protein-based chemical biology.