Kosuke Hitaka is a pharmacologist specializing in metabolic diseases. After obtaining a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Kyushu University in 2012, he spent over a decade in the pharmaceutical industry, where he was engaged in drug discovery research targeting metabolic diseases, including chronic kidney disease. In 2023, he joined Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners, Inc., where he supports pharmacological research in the fields of obesity and renal diseases. His work focuses on the design and execution of preclinical studies with a strong emphasis on clinical translatability, contributing to the acceleration of drug discovery programs.