Well, it is of course a step-by-step process that started back in the 80s. I was struggling to retrieve a little bit of DNA from things that were just a few … starting with just dried tissues that, you know, that were just a few months old, going back in time and struggling with the technological issues with that over a decade. And then it became possible to retrieve DNA from things like the mammoths or cave bears that lived at a similar time as the Neanderthals. And then I was very lucky to get a job in Germany, where of course Neanderthals is a big presence in our, in the imagination of people, so it was then very, an obvious next step, in a way, to try to do that.

More than 500 children under the age of 18 lost a parent in the Hanshin Earthquake; 88 of them lost both parents and became orphans. I have proposed the establishment of a foundation in order to support the education of these children so that they can sustain their hopes for the future. To that end, I would like to contribute the hundred thousand dollar prize awarded to me today by The Hyatt Foundation towards this new foundation for these young earthquake victims.

Our business everyday is to make money for people. And I take it as seriously as doctors who are trying to cure cancer, because by giving people financial freedom, we allow them to do great things in their lives - from retire to send their kids to college, to buy their first house, to fund a business that they might want to start.

The reason I've been able to keep going for so long is because of how much I love my sport. I still haven't lost that drive. I'm still as passionate about my sport today as I was when I first laced up a pair of boxing gloves. I love preparing for battle and getting into that mindset you must reach when you're putting your body through torture in training camp.

I was born in Osaka, Japan. It was 45 years ago. My father has a small factory in Osaka, and we lived next to his factory

Well, I will bring this technology to clinics. I really want to help as many patients as possible. As you may know, I started my career as a surgeon 25 years ago. But it turned out that I am not talented as a surgeon

So I think failure is important in my career.

my second failure in my career. But that second failure got me interested in knockout mice, mouse technology. So I think failure is important in my career

A book also pushed me to become a medical doctor. I was deeply inspired by Torao Tokuda, a physician who founded a hospital group in the 1970s that tried to revolutionize the Japanese medical care system.

Running CiRA with some 250 staff, I have come to spend less time discussing their data with my colleagues and students, and have been absorbed by my duties as the "chief executive officer" of CiRA, including devising strategies to advance both basic and applied research and to obtain sufficient funding. Anxious about the lack of financial resources for the future to allow us to continue hiring research support staffers, I even ran the full Kyoto Marathon in 2012 to raise online donations from the public. It was hard but helped us raise more than 10 million yen.